COVID-19: A Message for SHARE Members

Dear SHARE member,

We’ve been inspired by the things we’ve heard from you about taking care of patients and our community during this critical time. Situations often arise in our hospital that call for genuine heroism from SHARE members, but never so widely as now. The last week has been a scary and disorienting one for all of us – a time when not only taking care of a sick patient but riding an elevator or shuttle with coworkers feels like a risk we’d rather not take. Thank you all for your brave dedication to our community.

Questions and Concerns about Corona Virus/COVID-19

Good communication is as important as ever. SHARE organizers have been in touch with many of you – we’ve been listening to your concerns or questions, trying to answer the straightforward ones or escalate the hard ones. You may not see us as much in the buildings over the next few weeks — the SHARE staff is dedicated to doing our part to curb the spread of the coronavirus — but please know that we are working, we’re with you, and we want to help. 

  • If you have questions or concerns about safety protocol in your role, we suggest your start with your manager. You are our hospital and community’s most precious resource, and keeping you safe should be their highest priority. If you don’t get the information you need, please feel free to contact the command center – that’s what it’s there for.

  • If you have questions about your personal health condition or if you think you may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, email Employee Health Services, or call them at 508-793-6400.

In either of these situations, if you have trouble getting the information or help you need, please contact us at SHARE and we will do our best to help. You can find contact information online for the SHARE Organizer in your area, or call the office at 508-929-4020 and leave a message.

The SHARE homepage also now features an ongoing roundup of online COVID-19 news and resources selected for SHARE members.

Work Assignments, Working from Home, Etc.

If you have concerns about where you are working, going home or getting paid, how to handle childcare, or any related questions, SHARE would like to hear from you. It helps us to know what everyone thinks. 

Although volumes are low in some areas, the work is simultaneously heavy in others: the need for extra hands in those areas is expected to increase in the coming weeks. Hospital leaders are working to make sure that employees are staffed where they can be most beneficial, in ways that are appropriate to their competency and confidence. SHARE believes that floating is best when it’s voluntary. It is everyone’s hope that volunteers will step up to fulfill most of these needs. 

We are in discussions with management about all these issues. It is all happening very quickly. We are doing our best to make sure that SHARE members have choices as things evolve to address this very serious pandemic.

Thank you to every SHARE member who is working now to keep our hospital running strong. We know that that means every single one of you.

Please take good care of yourselves,

The SHARE Organizing Staff

p.s., As our system goes through the process of creating capacity for a surge of patients by cancelling unnecessary appointments and procedures, some of you may find yourselves with a few spare minutes.  We urge you to spend five to ten minutes in the next few days taking the Caregiver Engagement Survey that Press Ganey is administering on behalf of UMass Memorial.  It is short, easy, completely confidential, and the results will help SHARE continue to refine its priorities as our hospital finds its way back to normalcy.