Sharing Practices

• Parkview allowed employees to borrow from their PTO bank
• We allowed employees to use a previously frozen sick-bank benefit for certain situations
• We expanded special leave (job protection) to cover absence beyond just co-worker (family)
• We removed the requirement for physician note to start a leave of absence
  • Relieves burden on physician offices
  • Note still required after 14 days of absence

• Parkview coordinated a delivery service to provide those resources
  • Partnered with Waiter on the Way for delivery services, in addition to HR co-workers who delivered as well
  • Basic essential items were also made available 
• Parkview responded to generous community outreach for frontline co-workers and created a process to coordinate and distribute food donations across the system
• Parkview understood co-workers may need a place to stay in order to minimize exposure to their immediate family members or location for respite care and Parkview coordinated hotel accommodations

• As far as the attendance policy, HR has asked that leaders be flexible during this time. Parkview Health will work with co-workers on an individual basis on absences related to COVID-19. We realize the importance of flexibility and working with our co-workers during this time and event. However, we also expect co-workers who are not ill or caring for ill family members to fulfill their work assignments.  

In light of state and local recommendations on school closings, Parkview recognized the challenge our co-workers may be faced with in choosing work or child safety/care. Parkview quickly came together to design several options to assist co-workers in this situation.

First, we helped leaders think about how they could be flexible with staffing:

• Could co-workers job share?
• Could they adjust hours/shifts?
• Could they work less (instead of not at all)?

Then, we created resources for our co-workers:

• Facebook page - Parkview co-workers were able to join a private FB group for Parkview’s clinical students and regional school (universities and K-12) staff to match their needs with available offers for help
• Care.com - Parkview partnered with Care.com, a network of existing providers that Parkview co-workers were able to access for the first time, which supplemented or replaced their care options prior to the pandemic
• YMCAs - Parkview partnered with community-based emergency childcare centers

Families who need help finding or paying for care can contact Brighter Futures Indiana at 800-299-1627 to speak to a referral specialist.

• Parkview provided the CALM app for all co-workers for 6 months of use. The CALM app helps lower stress, anxiety, improves focus and allows for a more restful sleep. 
• Its Employee Assistance Program has provided virtual counseling sessions and is holding virtual support groups as well as incident debriefings
• Parkview has rolled out a daily communication that focuses on daily prayer and highlights positive messages from key executives within Parkview

Parkview assists leaders in deciding who can come back, how many, when, etc. Guidelines were created to get co-workers home quickly. We knew we needed to support social distancing and the stay-at-home order. In order to move swiftly, we created a guideline for leaders on who to move to remote work. Moving forward, we recognize the new ‘normal’ will have co-workers who will continue remote work and special considerations need to be designed to optimize the situation including engagement, communication, safety/ergonomics, technology, and productivity.

As we design a workforce for the future, Parkview recognizes and will allow some roles to remain remote. Benefits of a remote workforce include:

• Increased co-worker engagement (for those who enjoy it)
• Improved work-life balance
• Decreased space requirements for on-site
• Potential decrease in turnover
• Potential increase in productivity
• Parkview wants to ensure that even if stay at home orders are lifted, we do not want everyone who is currently working remotely to all come back into an office/facility setting. We will carefully phase return to ensure it is safe for co-workers to return. This is dependent on various criteria based on the COVID-19 status by region as well as how our hospitals are doing from a staffing and capacity perspective. Additionally, each department needs to have specific measures in place to ensure a safe work environment.

Parkview Occupational Health Clinics (POHC) have created a flow chart to help assess whether an employee should return to work or continue to be off of work. View POHC Return to Work/Off Work Guidelines.