I hope you all had a great extended Labor Day weekend (and for our PGC caregivers, will enjoy a nice day off for Chaturthi on Friday)!
On September 12-18, we will celebrate Environmental Services (EVS) appreciation week. I want to share a HUGE thank you to our EVS caregivers. EVS has played such a critical role throughout COVID and have complex, sometimes underappreciated roles in our ministries. Check out our article about EVS appreciation week and the story of one of our Oregon marketing leaders who volunteered alongside EVS and came away with enormous respect for their contributions. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but Kerrie Bartel-Christensen and I recorded a special “thank you” message that we’ve provided to EVS core leaders to share during huddles and team meetings. We will share it with all next month.
I had fun joining our IS & RESO Virtual Summer Social last week. I heard great feedback all around and we had strong participation – over 1,200 of us (+57% from last summer’s first virtual social). It was also great to see so many participate across RESO, PGC, and IS, as well as across regions.
What is most impressive and most significant to me, is the generosity and support to our Mission across IS & RESO. Our Summer Social Raffle, which closed last Friday, raised over $12,000 for YWCA of Spokane programs helping women and children escaping domestic violence. I’ll look forward to announcing our raffle winners on our September 23 Open Forum.
I encourage you to check out my eighth Fireside Chat with our Chief People Officer, Greg Till. In this chat, we touched on the complex and rapidly evolving policies and guidelines across states and within our own system around vaccination requirements and what is required to keep our patients and each other safe. My leadership team is working with HR to create better clarity around these expectations. For now, please continue to monitor our system FAQ with sub-links to requirements for your state.
I really appreciate those of you who have answered the call to volunteer supporting shifts in areas like Oregon and parts of California, where we are seeing critical workforce shortages. I hope you saw the note from Rod Hochman about how Providence is showing appreciation for all our caregivers’ efforts, as well as how we are investing to accelerate our hiring at this critical time.
We’ll talk on our September 23 Open Forum. Until then, have a great end to your summer and thank you for all you do to support our Mission!
-BJ
B.J. Moore
EVP/CIO, IS & RESO