Tips for Home Health and Personal Care Providers
Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment COVID-19 Guidance
As care providers, you each have responsibility for your own actions to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 virus. The following guidelines are designed to provide information and direction about how you and your organization can reduce the spread and impact of this illness. This document is written for people caring for consumers who have not been diagnosed with or are suspected of having COVID-19.
Stay informed
Stay informed about the local COVID-19 situation. Know where to turn for reliable, up-to-date information in your local community. Monitor the Colorado state COVID-19 website, the CDC COVID-19 website and your local public health agency for the latest information.
Communicate consistently and clearly with staff and consumers
Communicate about COVID-19 with your staff. Share information about what is currently known about COVID-19, the potential for surge, and your organization’s plans.
Communicate about COVID-19 with your consumers. Provide updates about changes to your policies regarding appointments, providing non-urgent care by telephone. Consider using your organization’s website to share updates.
Prepare your consumers before you visit
Many of your consumers will be at high risk for getting very sick from COVID-19. An important role for in-home caregivers is to provide guidance on what they can do to better protect themselves and you during home visits.
Because of the nature of your work, physical distancing poses challenges. Below are some considerations for helping you and your consumers minimize exposure.
Reduce or eliminate exposure from people
Ask your consumer to prohibit visitors who do not have an essential need to be in the home.
Let your consumer know what you will do to prevent infection, to monitor your health and exposure, to ensure that you will not deliver services when you are sick, and how their needs will be addressed if you are not available.
Ask your consumers to postpone household helpers and home repairs if they are not urgent.
Work with your consumer to determine if critical service can be provided fewer times a week than their usual schedule, in order to reduce the number of visits.
Consider if a single provider can offer more than one service to reduce the number of different people coming to their house.
Consider whether other people in the consumer’s household can be trained to provide needed services.
Reduce or eliminate exposure through distance
Consider what services and support can be delivered remotely.
Ask your clients to tell people outside their household to connect with them virtually when possible and not to visit when sick.
Whenever possible, have people who are bringing items to your client leave them somewhere the client can access them without coming in contact. Consider if you can deliver your service in this way.
Reduce or eliminate exposure through barriers or environmental changes
Consider whether services can be delivered with separation using curtains or other physical barriers.
When possible, choose to provide your services or care in the same room each time. This reduces exposure throughout the house and allows cleaning to be concentrated in that room.
Maintain at least 6 feet of physical distance whenever possible.
Reduce or eliminate exposures through supply practices
When possible, you should use dedicated or disposable supplies for your consumer, so that there is no contamination from other people receiving the service.
As long as your client does not have symptoms of COVID-19 or known close contact with a confirmed case, you can continue to follow your regular precautions.
Per the mandatory mask-wearing requirement, home health and personal care providers are required to wear a face mask when caring for consumers. Consumers are strongly recommended to wear a mask as well. Find additional guidance regarding masks on CDPHE’s website.
Avoid using household items that are not necessary to your services. If you use these items, they should be cleaned thoroughly.
Instruct your consumers or deliver services to increase cleaning and disinfecting practices
Wash their hands often.
Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains 60% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry. Soap and water should be used preferentially if hands are visibly dirty.
Avoid touching eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
Ensure all “high-touch” surfaces are cleaned often, such as counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables. Also, clean any surfaces that may have blood, stool, or body fluids on them.
Follow the CDC cleaning recommendations.
Wash laundry throughly.
Immediately remove and wash clothes or bedding that have blood, stool, or body fluids on them.
Wear disposable gloves while handling soiled items and keep soiled items away from their body. Clean hands (with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer) immediately after removing your gloves.
Read and follow directions on labels of laundry or clothing items and detergent. In general, using a normal laundry detergent according to washing machine instructions and dry thoroughly using the laundry thoroughly using the warmest temperatures recommended on the clothing label.
Place all used disposable gloves, facemasks, and other contaminated items in a lined container before disposing of them with other household waste. Clean your hands (with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer) immediately after handling these items. Soap and water should be used preferentially if hands are visibly dirty.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
If providers do not use PPE on a regular basis, the CDC recommends that they not add PPE to their practices, but maintain standard precautions if the consumer does not have diagnosed or suspected COVID-19, or close contact with someone who has diagnosed or suspected COVID-19.
If providers use PPE in everyday duties, conduct an inventory of available PPE. Consider conducting an inventory of available PPE supplies. Explore strategies to optimize PPE supplies.
Ensure that your sick leave policies are flexible and consistent with public health guidance and that employees are aware of these policies. You can read CDC’s guidance on management of healthcare personnel with potential exposure to COVID-19.
Other considerations
Identify strategies for consumers who can be cared for without visiting their home like:
Using the telephone to communicate.
Leveraging telehealth technologies and self-assessment tools.
Contact consumers prior to visit to screen for symptoms of acute respiratory illness (e.g., fever, cough, difficulty breathing) or COVID-19 diagnosis before entering the home.
If seeing consumers with symptoms, wear PPE. If PPE is not available, provide them with a mask for source control. Maintain 6 foot distance when providing the consumer with a mask, such as placing a mask on furniture and moving back while the consumer takes it.
As a service provider you should perform hand hygiene immediately upon arriving.
Restrict contact to consumers only. Ask other residents to remain at least 6 feet away or wait in another room.
Maintain physical distancing within the home (minimum of 6 feet) when possible.
Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing, or touching surfaces in a public place.
If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
To the extent possible, avoid touching high-touch surfaces. Ensure proper use of personal protection equipment (PPE). Health care personnel who come in close contact with confirmed or possible consumers with COVID-19 should wear the appropriate PPE.
If only dropping off supplies, avoid entering the home and maintain at least 6 feet of physical distance.
If you are sick, stay home. If you develop respiratory symptoms (e.g., cough, shortness of breath) you should
not report to work.
If you or one of your employees becomes ill, it will be necessary to notify any consumers that were seen while the
provider was symptomatic, or just prior to becoming symptomatic.
Clean hard surfaces in your vehicles (steering wheel, dials, seat adjusters, etc) and on computers, phones, and other equipment at the end of each day with disinfecting wipes.
When arriving home, remove your clothes and place them in a plastic bag for laundering. Take a shower (not bath).
Clean and disinfect your home/work space to remove germs: practice routine cleaning of frequently touched surfaces (for example: tables, doorknobs, light switches, handles, desks, toilets, faucets, sinks & cell phones). Follow the CDC cleaning recommendations.
Contact your local public health agency if a consumer has symptoms of COVID-19 or has a known exposure. Your local health department will help assess the situation and provide guidance on any further action.