Melissa Elliott, the Executive Director at Tony Stacey Centre for Veterans Care is our fourth nominee for our Long Term Care Leadership Recognition. With the second wave of the pandemic looming, learn more on how Tony Stacey Centre for Veterans Care is managing the COVID-19 pandemic:
Melissa Elliot
Tony Stacey Centre for Veterans Care
“The Tony Stacey Centre has not had a single case of COVID-19 to date. I’m nervous putting that out there, but it is remarkable.
Some of the things I think we did really well was that we started planning early. I saw what was happening in the world with COVID-19 and figured it was only a matter of time before it came here. So everything we did, we did early; ordering PPE, cohorting staff, closing our doors to visitors, socially distanced dining, and then dining in resident rooms.
The other contributing factor to our success is also the amount of communication. We had daily staff meetings, weekly communications with the families, daily web calls with our head office, Universal Care, and our sister homes. It was important to me that our frontline staff knew what was the most recent direction, the total number of PPE available, and all the efforts to try to keep the virus from entering our doors. Our frontline staff have been remarkable, and are heroes in their own right.
What kept us motivated was all the support we received from our families, friends, and the community with constant donations of food, garden stones, community car parade, posters of encouragement, and cards to each staff cheering us on.
It has been the most challenging time of my career. We are now gearing up for a second wave of the virus so we continue to be prepared.” – Melissa Elliott
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