Jewish Healthcare Foundation Joins New State Long-Term Care Support Effort

In 2020, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) served as lead educator for the Regional Response Health Collaboratives Program (RRHCP), which supported long-term care residents and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The RRHCP was a partnership between the PA Department of Human Services (PA DHS), the PA Department of Health, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and key healthcare organizations and health systems across the Commonwealth. As part of the program's offerings, JHF launched a statewide learning network available to all long-term care facilities with twice weekly webinars on topics related to infection control and the latest guidance for responding to and mitigating spread of COVID-19. JHF developed toolkits to help facilities become more self-sufficient during the pandemic.

RRHCP drew to a close at the end of 2020, and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation will again serve as lead educator in the Regional Congregate Care Assistance Teams (RCAT), a new, more limited, version of RRHCP that will provide COVID-19 outbreak support to long-term care facilities through February 28, 2021. On January 21 as part of the RCAT program, JHF conducted a statewide webinar with over 1000 registrants for personal care homes and assisted living facilities, focused on improving campaigns and uptake for staff vaccinations/reducing vaccine hesitancy. As a result of interest generated through that event, Nancy Zionts and JHF Quality Improvement Specialist Nicole Greer were invited as featured speakers at the statewide PA Healthcare and Coalition meeting on January 26 and will present at the statewide PA Homecare association meeting.