Our clients residents are in the most vulnerable category impacted by COVID-19, so we thought it would be reassuring to you to know what we are doing to minimise the chance of our staff introducing the virus into your facility, and how we can continue to offer a high standard of service in the event that you need to impose stringent access restrictions.
We currently operate under the following guidelines:
- Any staff member who has been to a high-risk country self isolates for 14 days. We had one staff member return from overseas prior to the initial announcement by the Prime Minister, notwithstanding this, out of an abundance of caution we had this person self-isolate despite showing no signs of infection.
- We see risk avoidance as a primary strategy and have therefore advised our staff that we do not consider it responsible for them to travel to a high-risk country/region.
- Where staff have symptoms consistent with COVID-19, they have been advised to cancel any onsite engagements with clients until they can positively confirm that they do not have COVID-19. One staff member who thought they were coming down with a cold has advised a client that they prefer to defer the onsite work. This staff member has since been advised that their symptoms are not consistent with COVID-19.
Pride Living can continue to offer high response service to our clients through the following channels:
- Our systems are cloud-based, and our staff regularly work from home, at the client’s premises or during travel periods. This means working remotely is already second nature to us.
- We have a video-conferencing studio; (Zoom and Teams (formerly Skype) and currently conduct regular video-conferences – we can switch to virtual meetings if you would prefer not to have us onsite, provided you have video-conferencing capability.
- We are paperless – we do not deal with physical files, so we are used to dealing with electronic data or replica files.
- We use dedicated portals with our clients to share documentation/reports etc. – we already have an established process that makes it easy for us to share material, therefore, allowing for a more remote interaction if needed.
Where onsite interaction is necessary, our staff will continue to adhere to our clients Crisis Management Plans and procedures.
While the primary focus is on protecting residents and staff, it would be remiss of us not to raise the potentially severe financial implications to operators arising from community anxiety and the public health advice. We encourage all providers to revisit their Liquidity Management Strategies (LMS) to ensure that these allow for abnormal negative cash flows from increased vacancy and the potential for extended underperformance at a cash operating level (EBITDA). Should you have any concerns in this area, please feel free to contact us.