PA Extends Long-Term Care COVID-19 Support Program

Over the past five months, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation has served as a lead educator in the Regional Response Health Collaboratives Program (RRHCP), which aims to support long-term care residents and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. The RRHCP is 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. The continued presence of COVID-19 in long-term care has led the PA DHS to extend the RRHCP.

As the leader of the RRHCP statewide Learning Network, JHF has provided webinars on over 40 different topics to over 1800 skilled nursing and assisted living/personal care facilities throughout the Commonwealth. In addition, over 3500 individual program participants have joined in JHF's online web-based learning portal communities on Tomorrow's HealthCare. The Learning Network will continue to provide webinars for the facilities until December, but we have entered a new phase of our work. JHF has met with the RRCHP Teams and Education Committee to begin developing "toolkits," including standard operating procedures and education guides, to help facilities become more self-sufficient once the RRHCP program ends. The goal is to provide tested tools and educational materials in such topics as: Obtaining PPE, Infection Control, Testing & Cohorting, Contact Tracing, & Staff Education and Support.