Remembering Hurricane Sandy | Two Years Later
Posted in emergency plans for natural disasters in NYC, Hurricane Awareness & Preparation, Senior Health Care Tips
I want to take a moment to remember the hard work and dedication displayed at all levels of SelectCare’s staff during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Despite the heavy damage Hurricane Sandy inflicted on New York’s mass transit and electrical infrastructure, our administrative and field staff implemented our emergency plans flawlessly, putting the safety of our clients before their own – in some cases sheltering in place for days on end and in others escorting our clients to emergency shelters and continuing to provide the high-quality care that defines our service.
Please take a moment to review the letter below that we published following the storm, which highlights members of our field staff who truly went above and beyond to ensure the safety and comfort of our clients. Bear in mind that these stories are just a glimpse of the compassionate professionalism we saw in those hectic days following the storm.
If you believe that you or your loved ones deserve quality care that you can rely on, call SelectCare today.
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A letter from the Carla Holub, Vice President, SelectCare NYC
While recovery efforts continue along the East Coast in response to Hurricane Sandy, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work, creativity and dedication displayed by the entire SelectCare team before, during and after the storm passed through New York.
Thanks to our emergency training program and close ties with New York City’s Office of Emergency Management, our company was given real-time updates about Sandy’s expected path and severity and in turn used that information to ensure our clients and staff were well-prepared for the challenges we faced during the height of the storm.
While every member of the team went above and beyond to provide quality care and information to our clients and their families, I need to take a moment to specifically thank our caregivers, many of whom live in the city’s hardest-hit neighborhoods.
Despite the dangers faced by their own families, our caregivers stayed with their patients throughout the storm, through blackouts and evacuations, guiding patients to emergency shelters and putting themselves at personal risk, all while providing the level of high-quality care, compassion and reassurance that can be so easily overlooked in light of the challenges Sandy presented us as a business, a community and as residents of New York City.
I am proud to say that I work with the most dedicated staff an administrator could hope for and know that not a single one of our team members would hesitate to put that same effort forward if another emergency took place tomorrow. This includes the dedication of the Director of Nurses, Field Nurse Supervisors and Service Coordinators who worked tirelessly from their homes, communicating with clients and their caregivers to ensure every one remained safe and maintain a strong continuity of care.
Not every caregiver in this city can say that they, like Home Health Aide Vicky Francis, traveled through a Zone A evacuation region in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, navigated the city’s constantly-changing emergency bus routes and walked countless miles through dangerous streets to reach her patient’s home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan the day after the storm, on-time and with a smile on her face.
Nor can every home health care company proudly say that their employees share the dedication of home health aides like Ana Sepulveda, who was forced to evacuate with her client from a Midtown apartment complex to an emergency storm shelter. Ana’s 12-hour shift turned into 72 hours of constant care in the cramped confines of the shelter. Operating on minimal sleep, Ana was a constant, caring presence for her patient who not only helped keep spirits high throughout the evacuation, but put the well-being of her patient above her own and traveled into the middle of the storm to secure food, medicine and personal care items needed to ensure her patient’s health and safety.
There are no shortage of stories like these being passed through the SelectCare office in the aftermath of the storm and I want to personally thank every member of the staff for their actions during those trying days.
The dedication, creativity and passion I saw during those hectic days make me proud to say I am a member of the SelectCare team, and while we cannot predict when or what our next city-wide emergency will be, I am confident that we are well-prepared to meet that challenge and continue to provide the quality of care that has made us the industry example we are today.
Thank you,
Carla Holub