Page 8 - 2020 Circle of Care Employee Handbook
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EMERGENCY SITUATIONS & PATIENT CARE
Circle of Care has an emergency preparedness/readiness plan which is put into effect in the event of an emergency of which we have warning and for an emergency without warning. In the event of an emergency, patient care needs to continue to ensure optimal patient outcome and to remain with the prescribed plan of care. Always use your best judgment in regard to safe travel to a patient’s home.
Alert administration immediately if a patient’s care, safety or wellbeing has been or will be affected by the potentially hazardous situation.
Advise the patient’s caregiver to Call 211 for any assistance. We will assist the patient as requested with registering with 211 for evacuation assistance. Advise the patient to Call 911 for emergency situations (medical, police or fire).
Patients are assigned a triage level upon admit to the agency. All patients classified as level 3 or 4 Triage can be cared for by their guardian for 72 to 96 hours without adverse effects and the caregiver is responsible for evacuations in the event of any emergency. Assigned triage level can be found on the Patient’s Demographics page in their medical chart.
In the event we are unable to utilize email communications among staff to relay instructions, the following may occur:
• The appointed Emergency Preparedness Personnel will contact Lead Therapists and Supervising Therapists via phone call or text with further instructions.
• Supervising Therapists should contact their assistants via phone call or text with further instructions.
• If phone or text capabilities are unavailable and you are able to safely drive to the office, further instructions may be available at the office via posted written instructions or communicating directly with assigned Emergency Preparedness staff.
• If you are unable to reach the office, you may text 210-336-5891, 210-288-8477, 210-241-4345 or 210-381-4146.
In the event we are unable to utilize Raintree electronic documentation,
Therapy staff should document patient care using hand-written S.O.A.P. note format at the time of the visit. Caregiver should co-sign the documents. Include date, time in/out, and name of caregiver present during the visit.
Office staff will utilize paper forms provided by their supervisor. Once the electronic system is up and running, paper documentation can be transferred to the Raintree system.
During a Federal, State, or Local Catastrophic event, CTW Home Health, Inc reserves the right to modify policies to uphold and maintain day-to-day operations in order to continue plan of care and/or best meet the needs and safety of our patients and employees.
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