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BlueSprig News

11.30.2020 COVID-19 Update

Joshua Sleeper November 30, 2020

Dear TBH Family,

We hope you and your family had a healthy and restful Thanksgiving and are continuing to navigate the COVID-19 situation and its impact as best as possible.

We remain committed to actively monitoring health and safety guidelines from the CDC and other health authorities as they are updated to address the current COVID situation. With the start of cold and flu season and recent increases in COVID occurrence rates throughout the country, the CDC has continued to evolve its health screening guidelines.

As we have done throughout the pandemic, TBH remains focused on alignment with the CDC’s guidance when creating and updating our health and safety screening and policies. Based on the CDC’s most recent changes we have made some additional clarifications to our Health Screening Policy specifically in the area of qualifying symptoms. Please find it below for your reference and outlined in the included graphic.

In addition, we have created a new process which allows you to attest to the existence of recurring symptoms aligned with a pre-existing condition whose presence would not on their own preclude your family member from receiving services.

Please continue to monitor your family’s health, if you identify any symptoms, reach out and cancel your scheduled sessions. Please do not allow services to continue if your family member is exhibiting symptoms or meet any of the CDC’s guidelines warranting self-isolation or quarantine.

Thank you, as always, for the opportunity to serve your family.

Ned

Health Screening Policy – Updated 11.30.2020

Health Screening

    1. Do you or anyone in your household that will be present during the scheduled session closer than 6 feet for longer than 15 minutes now, or have in the last 14 days had, any of the following:
      • Fever or feeling feverish (chills, sweating)
      • New cough
      • Difficulty breathing
      • Sore throat
      • Muscles aches or body aches
      • Vomiting or diarrhea
      • New loss of taste or smell
    2. If so, you may perform or receive services if:
      • You have received a negative COVID test taken after your symptoms began.
      • You provide a doctor’s note confirming your symptoms are not COVID related.
      • You have been asymptomatic for a minimum of 1 day (24 hours) and at least 10 days have passed since any symptoms first appeared.
      • If you have had a confirmed COVID case you may return after two negative tests taken at least 24 hours apart or if you have been asymptomatic for a minimum of 1 day (24 hours) and at least 10 days have passed since any symptoms first appeared or your COVID diagnosis was confirmed.
      • If you confirm or have previously confirmed through the Recurring Pre-existing Symptom Attestation process that this is not a new symptom, but a recurring one aligned with a pre-existing condition (allergies, chronic, etc.) – the attestation form can be accessed here.
    3. If you are not a medical professional, have you or anyone in your household in the last 14 days been directly exposed to an individual with a confirmed or suspected case of the COVID-19?

Exposure is defined by the CDC as anyone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes during a 24-hour period starting from 48 hours before the person began feeling sick until the time the patient was isolated. Or for asymptomatic patients 2 days prior to positive specimen collection.

Suspected case is defined as anyone who is being treated as presumed positive by a doctor.

  1. If you are a medical professional, have you in the last 14 days had direct exposure to any individual with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 without wearing necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) for your profession?
  2. Have you in the last 14 days traveled internationally?

If any of the above questions are answered in the affirmative and the respondent does not subsequently confirm they have been without symptoms for the required time or have a valid negative test result; immediately ask the individual/s to leave the location and cancel the session.

If the affirmative answer occurs prior to starting a home-based session, please cancel the session before entering the residence. Please report this occurrence to HR at covid@tbh.com and to your supervisor.

An incident report should be filled out for the reporting of confirmed COVID cases.

As noted above an exception will be made for team members and clients who have a known pre-existing condition which overlaps with a COVID-19 symptom. For example, if a Client has a known symptom of diarrhea due to medication, a family member can fill out a Recurring Pre-existing Symptom Attestation found here and not attend to the question in the Health screening further.

An exception should also be made for individuals that confirm they have received a valid negative test result or who can produce a doctor’s note confirming their symptom was not Coronavirus related or a note indicating the team member is safe to return to work for newly developed symptoms not related to an ongoing medical condition or situation.

Outside of these two exceptions, if an individual refuses to answer any of the questions or is unable to, please ask them to leave until they can do so. If needed, please cancel the session.

If all the questions are answered negatively (meaning with a NO answer) please proceed with the scheduled session.

Temperature Check

TBH is implementing temperature checks in TBH centers as an additional health & safety precaution due to the larger number of individuals in TBH centers. Temperature checks are not required for in-home sessions because the session is limited to the TBH team member and immediate family.

  1. Immediately check the temperature of any individual who enters a TBH center.
  2. If the temperature of the individual reads above 100.4 F request the individual leave immediately and cancel the session.

If an individual refuses to comply with a temperature check, please ask them to leave until they can do so. If needed, please cancel the session.

Washing Hands

Wash hands with warm water and soap for a minimum of 20 seconds immediately upon entering the center or the residence before starting the sessions and in between sessions. If soap and water are not available and hands are not visibly dirty, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol may be used. Regularly wash hands during the course of the scheduled day.

Face Coverings

TBH requires utilization of a facial covering to be worn by TBH team members while performing work related duties in line with local and state guidelines. Team members are eligible for a one-time reimbursement up to $20.00 for the purchase of PPE, if not provided by TBH. Please contact us immediately to submit reimbursement.