Kaweah Health Employee Huddle

March 26, 2021

Please Note: When time does not allow us to answer every submitted question, we answer questions at the next week KD Huddle. Submit a question now for next week by e-mailing dvolosin@kaweahhealth.org.

EMPLOYEE HUDDLE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR 3/26/2021

Are merit raises going to be honored this year during performance evaluations?

The fiscal year 2021-22 annual budget development process has been launched, commencing with a meeting myself and our Executive Team held with our Board of Directors last week. At that meeting, the Board unanimously supported our request to fully reinstate our merit-based raises in the performance evaluation process for next year. So, all employees who receive a performance evaluation between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022 will receive a wage increase depending on the outcome of their performance evaluation.

Do we anticipate that a 401K match will return?

Yes. At last week’s Board meeting, the Board also fully supported our request to reinstate Kaweah Health’s match of employee contributions to our 401(k) plan. All elements of the 401(k) plan will be the same as “pre-COVID, including the same years’ of service percentage match scale. Because the 401(K) plan runs on a calendar year basis that spans the last six months of fiscal year 2021 and the first six months of fiscal year 2022, we will only match half of the employee contributions made during the calendar year 2021. My recommendation will be to look at the total employee contributions made over the entire calendar year, not just those made during the first six months of fiscal year 2022, so as not to penalize those employees who may make larger contributions in the first half of the calendar year.

For those of us that plan to retire in the next several years and will go out with a surplus of sick time that we have earned, can this be revisited as to pay out on retirement or before? Many of us have a pristine attendance schedule and leaving so much in a sick bank on retirement seems as if it's somewhat of a penalty for having had such a good attendance record with very little call-ins for being sick.

First and foremost, I want to express my appreciation and gratitude to all of our employees who have an outstanding attendance records for their commitment and dedication. I have been here 29 years myself and have only missed four days of work—two days when I was in the hospital. I also recognize that when employees are sick or are taking care of a sick child, they need to be home and not at work. I am similarly appreciative and grateful for their service; that is what paid time off is for.
To pay out some or all of an employee’s unused sick bank when they retire from Kaweah Health is a question that has been asked many times over the years. If we were to do so, it would cost Kaweah Health tens of millions of dollars. I personally have 1,060 unused hours in my EIB bank and will likely add hundreds of additional hours to it before I retire. I personally do not know of any hospital or company that pays a retiring employee for their unused sick time. This might have existed in the past but to do so in today’s incredibly-challenging economic times, it simply isn’t affordable. The same is true of providing health care benefits to retirees which has pretty much disappeared in today’s market.

An employee got his wife an appointment to get the vaccine at Walgreens. When she went to her appointment she was told that the Premier does not cover its members getting the vaccine at a pharmacy. Isn’t the vaccine free of charge? Where are we supposed to get our loved ones vaccinated if our insurance is limiting our options?

The COVID vaccine itself is free all over the country and through any place of vaccination. There are many Tulare County-sponsored locations where you can receive the vaccine without any cost. You can also receive the vaccine free of charge at our Urgent Care Center on Court Street. Some entities like Walgreens are also administering the vaccine but they are collecting an administration fee of about $11.00. Because Walgreen’s is out of network for Kaweah Health, our insurance does not cover that administration fee if received at Walgreen’s. I would suggest that you consider one of the County’s administration sites (e.g., their mass vaccination sites at the Tulare Ag Center) or Kaweah Health’s Urgent Care Center.

Now that the COVID numbers have decreased greatly and the number of employees that are out with COVID are way down, when will Maternal Child Health staff members stop floating to the house?

Kari Knudsen tells me that the COVID-19 Operations Team has been evaluating the floating of MCH staff as recent as this week. With our continued improvements in staffing, we are now able to stop floating MCH staff to medical surgical units for “impact relief”. The help provided has been greatly appreciated! This change is effective today!

An employee’s mom became so ill after the 2^nd vaccine that she had to be hospitalized. They said there were four other patients in the hospital with the same problem. Have we seen that happen here at Kaweah? Have we seen any deaths due to the vaccine?

Shortly after the vaccines were rolled out, I did read an article about a number of very frail and elderly nursing home residents actually died shortly after receiving their second dose of vaccine. Scientists and doctors stated that there was no evidence that the vaccine itself caused their deaths but the reaction of fever, chills, body aches and general malaise, coupled with their comorbid conditions, contributed to their deaths. As for here, I have not personally heard of any patients or employees being hospitalized because of their reaction to the vaccines.
I am aware of two patient deaths at Kaweah Health where the patient had received their first dose of vaccination but was symptomatic at the time they received their second vaccination. One patient was admitted somewhere between five and seven days after receiving their second dose and the other patient was hospitalized before they received their second dose. Neither patient had gone through the full vaccination process of two doses and two weeks of antibody development after the second dose. While scientists believe that there is some level of immunity and protection after the first dose, the 94-95% effectiveness touted by Pfizer and Moderna doesn’t occur until after the full vaccination process.

Other hospitals are now wearing surgical masks for non-COVID patients. When are we going to be able to do the same?

Also according to Kari, we will continue to adjust our PPE protocols as advised by the CDC, CDPH and OSHA. At this time, N95 masks are still required for COVID-positive patients. With the possible aerosol transmission, it is prudent to follow airborne precautions. This said, we have a tentative plan to roll back the universal N95 masking and wearing of face shields for non-COVID, non-isolation patients in mid-April. We do continue to look at and be influenced by the status of infection rates in our County, the tier status of our County (currently red but on the verge of turning orange) and things like the reopening of schools. Our timeline is still tentative based on these things and subject to change if necessary for patient and staff safety.

Are we able to have a link where we can go and see all of the previous COVID 19 Dashboards? We have seen huge drops in positivity in our community our employees. Is this a clear demonstration showing that the drop in COVD cases can be more than partially attributed to the vaccines efficacy rate? How many people have been vaccinated in our county? Are we expecting and preparing for another surge?

I don’t know about being able to look at all previous COVID-19 dashboards but I’ll check with Doug Leeper, our Chief Information Officer. I think this would be an interesting trip down memory lane. As for where our County currently stands, our 7-day overall positivity rate currently sits at 3.0%; our Health Equity positivity rate (unhealthiest quadrant of Tulare County) currently sits at 4.3%; and our 7-day average number of daily new COVID cases per 100,000 population currently sits at 6.3. I agree with you that I think the virus is starting to die off as more and more people achieve immunity and protection through vaccination or having previously contracted the virus. As of yesterday, 93,331 Tulare County residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine and the County has approximately 36,000 doses remaining to be administered (this is across the entire County and includes all vaccinators, including Kaweah Health). While we are not expecting another surge to hit us, we still stand “ready” to act if it does. As of yesterday, we only had 25 COVID-positive patients in the acute medical center and only four of them were in the ICU.

Are we seeing an uptick in flu patients? Seems that there are more people in the community with flu symptoms.

Kathy Wittman reported on Monday that we’ve seen 831 positive flu cases since the beginning of the flu season; 17 of them were hospitalized; 182 patients tested positive for both the flu and COVID; influenza B continues to be the predominant strain of flu, which appears to have peaked in late January, but is still averaging about 42 cases per week over the last 7 weeks.

You’ve said before that the new variant is in Tulare County. Have we seen it here at Kaweah? Is it truly more deadly than the “original”? How will we know if we don’t have the equipment to test for it? Is it treated like a “regular” COVID case?

Neither Kaweah Health nor the Tulare County Public Health Department has the laboratory technology to test the DNA/RNA of the virus to determine if it is a variant or not. As such, we only know if a patient has COVID and not the strain of their virus. We accordingly treat all forms of COVID the same. The County Public Health Department has reported that one or more of the variants has entered Tulare County, as has the State of California. While I have read and heard that the variant versions of COVID-19 are considered more contagious than the original strain, I have not heard that the death rate is any higher or that the vaccines are any less effective at preventing death or severe illness from COVID.

As I drive past mortuaries around town, I notice tents and refrigerator trucks. This is just so sad. How is our death rate now? Is it slowing down some?

It is very sad indeed. As of yesterday, the County reported that we have had 802 COVID-related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. That translates into a 1.6% death rate, meaning that 1.6% of those who contract COVID-19 pass away from it. This rate is exactly the same as the Statewide rate and has held constant throughout the pandemic. However, while the rate of death is unchanged, there are fewer and fewer COVID-related deaths being reported because there are fewer and fewer people contracting the virus.

I’m grateful for all the time and effort that has gone into making these Huddles possible. They have been an important part of truthful information that I/we can share with my friends in the community.

Thank you. It has been an equally rewarding and important experience for all of us well. Thank you for staying so engaged with us and posing such great questions. Employee Huddles will definitely be a permanent part of our future.

I’ve noticed that WR2 in ED is no longer separated from the regular waiting room and that COVID + and suspect patients are being put in lab and with all the other patients. Has there been a change in protocol?

According to Brad Danby, our interim Director of the Emergency Department, we are still continuing to screen all patients for COVID-19 symptoms. All patients and visitors are masked. Segregation of the waiting room was an early reaction to COVID-19 that some EDs did and some didn’t. After consultation with our Infection Prevention Specialist and ED physicians, it was felt that continuing to segregate patients in the waiting room was an unnecessary step. This change was made this week instead of waiting until the opening of Zone 5 so we could accommodate the return of visitors to our ED.

I just want to thank whomever worked with the city to install crosswalk signs on West between the hospital and SSB. I have almost been hit here more times than I can count. I appreciate the attention to making this a safer crossing area. Thank you!

You bet. Marc Mertz, Dieter Reichmann and Julieta Moncada, along with Visalia City Manager Randy Groom, deserve all the credit. Thank you all for making this very important employee safety measure a reality!