Clinical staff worked through pandemic

NEWPORT CITY – Even though they are not medical providers, North Country Hospital support staff continued to work through the pandemic and deal with patients every day.

Manager of Patient Access, Denise Bergeron, called working through the pandemic a very trying experience, and it continues to be that way.

“We had a lot of staffing issues, but all of my staff were there through the pandemic,” she said. “We didn’t have any callouts, and hardly anybody left. They stepped up to the plate through the daily changes, and I’m very proud of that.The benefit of all that meant staff was available to the community, and available to answer questions as best they could.”

Her departmental duties entail registering inpatients, outpatients, and those who receive service through the Emergency Department. All that meant she and her colleagues have the potential to have face-to-face with COVID-19 patients every day. However, that didn’t concern Bergeron, and she added she is not afraid of being a non-medical frontline worker.

“We have protocols in place,” she said. “They went into effect at the beginning of the pandemic.”

The protocols include a mask mandate for everyone and plexiglass where staff meet with the public. They also had support from the hospital community. The facility provided information to staff about where patients could obtain coronavirus information, which Bergeron said eased the public’s minds. Wendy Franklin, Director of Communications, added there were many unknowns in the beginning.

“That was the scary part,” she said. “In our lifetime, we have never been in the midst of a public health crisis quite like this pandemic. It took a little bit of time for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Vermont Department of Health to push out what those guidelines and protocols were going to be. Once they were in place, we could rely on them to provide updates even if they changed as more data came in. Without them, it would have been tough.”

Financial Navigator Paula Kimball assists patients with their billing needs but does as much as possible over the phone. Before the pandemic, most of Kimball’s patient interaction was face-to-face. Even now, because of uptick concerns, most people prefer to conduct health insurance business by phone.

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