“There are hills and valleys with COVID-19. When it was introduced into the hospital, there were big hills, and when things calmed down, a valley.
At first, the corporate team decided to make some fundamental workflow changes, and my work with access control and HVAC was abundant. Workflow changes and requests are constantly evolving.
I do the electronic door controls. The swipe card accesses to the exterior doors were limited, and the entrances restricted to a single entry, where people could be documented and greeted upon entry.
There were temporary modifications and add-ons to expand the negative pressure rooms to other adjacent rooms. Negative air pressure vents the potentially contaminated air in the room out through an exhaust, similar to a kitchen stove hood. This protects the staff, but these are things that people don’t think much about.
It’s unfortunate that there are outbreaks in our hospital. But for the most part, I’m more scared to go to the grocery store than I am to work. There is PPE all around the hospital. If you’re not given it, you can ask for it because it is here.
We get perks like free parking, and the community is chipping in with free lunches and the 7pm cheers. We’re all contributing.
We have sick time benefits, so if one person has the sniffles, they can stay home. People need to utilize the benefits, and not go to work because they’re behind or stressed, and risk contaminating others.
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a racial thing that was noticeable. It wasn’t direct, but in comments like, ‘Oh, we’re not gonna go to Richmond.’ I got offended. But once people started speaking up and they were talking about it in the media, people were more aware of it.”
- Phil, Electrical Instrument Control Technician, part of the health care team