St. Elizabeth's Hospital issued the following announcement on April 8.
HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and HSHS Southern Illinois Home Care and Hospice have received a lot of support already during this COVID-19 health crisis with some asking what they can do to further offer support. Following a nationwide trend, HSHS St. Elizabeth’s is offering an option that families can do to show their appreciation for health care workers.
One thing that could make a strong impact is if residents could consider printing out a heart from the hospital website and placing it on their front doors or in their front windows. Chief Nursing Officer Regina Peterson shared, “As our health care workers drive into work each morning or evening, they would see these hearts on their way in to work at our hospital and clinics. It would really give our colleagues a boost to see how everyone is pulling for them.”
Visit www.steliz.org/paper-hearts and print out the 8.5” x 11” heart flyer and display it on a front door or in a front window. There is also a heart outline that parents can print out for their kids to decorate and display. Everyone is encouraged to take a photo and share it on social media with the hashtag, #heartsforhealthcare.
Looking for other ways to help? First and foremost, the community can help fight COVID-19 spread by staying home, practicing good hand hygiene, giving blood if possible, making a monetary donation, or donating other items and equipment.
St. Elizabeth’s set up a donation form on their “How to Help” page (https://steliz.org/COVID-19-Updates/How-to-Help), under “Donating items and services,” to categorize and process offers of personal protective equipment (PPE) and equipment, food donations for staff and other offers of assistance to continue to support our caregivers’ efforts against the coronavirus.
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital is also accepting cloth face masks to help with the national shortage during the COVID-19 outbreak. To be clear, currently St. Elizabeth’s has sufficient supply of surgical masks and other PPE for clinicians and continues to follow CDC guidance for the safety of patients and staff. Other materials that are needed are elastic banding in sizes ¼” (preferred), ½” or ¾”. These can be placed in plastic bags when donated.
For the month of April, cloth masks will be accepted on Tuesdays at Scott Credit Union's Belleville East branch between 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and on Wednesdays at Scott Credit Union's O’Fallon branch between 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Anyone interested in making masks with either elastic or cotton straps, can visit www.steliz.org/covid-donate to view criteria.
For more information, visit HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital’s website at www.steliz.org/COVID-19-Updates.
Original source can be found here.
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