"We back up the doctors and nurses. We make sure they can do their job right by getting the facts accurate in our paperwork. We all work together and look after each other.
I’ve worked in Patient Registration for 14 years. When the patient comes to our desk, we register them, find out all their particulars like their personal health care card number, their address, who’s their doctor, and their reason for being here. We print out all the forms that eventually go to medical records from emergency.
We do all the daycare surgery paperwork and send it to the OR, so everything is kept in order. We also register lab patients. We do the Switchboard Operator work too, transferring calls around the hospital, and transferring incoming calls to wherever they need to go.
At the beginning of the outbreak, there was hardly anybody coming to the hospital. It was so quiet. And we were nervous if someone were to show up with any shortness of breath.
Before COVID, patients would come directly to us, but now if they have any symptoms of respiratory, they have to wait outside the emergency door, and a nurse will come take them in the back door.
They have put red plates and blue plates in the emergency room. Anyone with respiratory sits in the red area, and anyone else without symptoms of respiratory sits in the blue area. There’s been a wall built between the areas in the emergency waiting room.
I wear my face mask and shield. I’m always using hand sanitizer or washing my hands a lot. I’m very careful of everything. As soon as I come home, I take my clothes off at the washing machine, put it in the washer, and have a shower.
I live with my Mom who has dementia. I have to keep updating her every day about what the coronavirus is. She figured she hasn’t been out of the house for so long, she asked, ‘Am I in jail?’ I have to keep reminding her, it’s for her protection. And then she remembers just fine when I explain it. She is being protected by staying at home."
- Janice, Patient Registration, part of the health care team