All hands on deck: OSF office workers train for duties at hospital, walk-in clinics
PEORIA — Rising COVID-19 cases have forced all hands on deck at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center.
Office workers recently left their desks behind and began doing non-clinical tasks normally performed by medical personnel or support staff.
More than 170 employees have volunteered to take on extra duties for at least the next month in an effort to ease staffing shortages during a record-breaking surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations.
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Thomas Ott, vice president of treasury services for OSF HealthCare, normally spends his workday crunching numbers. This week, he began doing housekeeping.
“Last night, I was on hospital floor two and three picking up trash, replacing gloves, aprons, handing out water,” he said.
Ott’s efforts allowed a few exhausted nurses to go home on time.
“They didn’t have to pick up the trash, they didn’t have to refill the gloves and aprons and garbage bags, right? They could go home, and it’s all ready for the next day, and I thought that was great,” said Ott.
Extra help in the walk-in clinics
While nurses in administrative positions have been helping out in the clinical setting throughout the pandemic, this is the first time employees without clinical training have been asked to help. Housekeeping is just one of the duties office workers have assumed, said Kim Blakey, vice president of clinical business strategic operations in nursing administration, who is leading the program.
“There are some people who are less comfortable in the hospital environment, so we put them in, like, the call center,” she said. “We're behind in that area as well.”
Office workers have also been placed in OSF’s walk-in clinics, said Blakey.
“They are greeting people at the door, helping them get back to the room, helping set up, whatever the nurses might need,” said Blakey.
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Donning the bee suit
Employees are trained and fitted with N95 masks before beginning new duties.
Jennifer Towery, manager of editorial services for OSF HealthCare, posted a photo of herself on Facebook in what looked like a bee suit while being fitted for her mask.
“You put the hood on without any mask, and they spray a chemical in there so you learn to recognize it. It’s harmless. Then you are fitted for a mask, and you put the hood back on and they spray the chemical. Then you move around, you turn side to side, you talk a lot. You do all the things that you’re going to be doing while you’re wearing your N95 mask, and if you never taste that chemical, then you can be confident that you have the right fit,” said Towery.
A good-fitting mask can help alleviate any anxiety people might feel being in the hospital during a global pandemic. Towery recently wore her new mask while training as a behavioral health monitor. She sat with a hospitalized patient deemed at risk for self-harm. It’s an important task that doesn’t require clinical experience, though it is typically done by medical personnel. Taking over that duty allowed a nurse to do other things.
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Lightening the load
Towery has volunteered to do extra duties 16 hours a week, mostly outside of her normal workday. So far, the experience has been very satisfying. While the repeated COVID surges have been hard on people working in the hospital, Towery has remained relatively untouched. She is glad for the opportunity to lighten the load for others.
“The person I worked with last night said, ‘We’re tired, and it’s been harder this time because we were already tired,’” said Towery. “They are among those who don’t have more to give; they are doing all they can and more. But we have more people to help. This is what OSF has always done — we do whatever we have to do to take care of patients. I can be part of that now, just a little bit.”
Leslie Renken can be reached at 309-370-5087 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: OSF HealthCare office staff take on hospital duties during COVID surge
