We take your safety as our priority and have developed an extensive plan to protect you and our staff.

Arukah Rehab has taken the necessary precautions to minimize risks for our team and for our clients. The safety of our clients and our team is our top priority. We will screen and assess the risks in the workplace before treating clients. 

To ensure everyone’s safety, clients will be called the day before your appointment and Appointment must be cancelled immediately if clients present with even mild symptoms that may be signs of COVID-19.

Is the client aware of anyone they have been in contact with who has COVID-19 symptoms? Also to receive treatment the client must not have left BC within the previous 14 days.

If you have questions or concerns about screening, please consult with the manager or clinical supervisor of Arukah Rehab.

SCREENING:

Clients will be asked a series of questions such as these taken from the:

 BC COVID 19 Self-Assessment Tool.  

Are you experiencing any of the following:

• Severe difficulty breathing (e.g. struggling to breathe or speaking in single words)
• Severe chest pain
• Having a very hard time waking up
• Feeling confused
• Losing consciousness

Are you experiencing any of the following:

• Mild to moderate shortness of breath
• Inability to lie down because of difficulty breathing
• Chronic health conditions that you are having difficulty managing because of difficulty breathing

Are you experiencing cold, flu or COVID-19-like symptoms, even mild ones?

Symptoms include: fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat and painful swallowing, stuffy or runny nose, loss of sense of smell, headaches, muscle aches, fatigue or loss of appetite.

Have you travelled to any countries outside Canada (including the United States) within the last 14 days?

Did you provide care or have close contact with a person with confirmed COVID-19?

Note: This means you would have been contacted by your health authority’s public health team.

ACCESS SAFETY BEFORE VISITING CLIENTS 

All Arukah Rehab workers are responsible to assess the mobile workplace. This includes client’s homes, facilities, gyms, coffee shops or wherever the meeting will take place. Identify areas where there may be risks, either through close physical proximity or through contaminated surfaces. The closer together workers or people are and the longer they are close to each other, the greater the risk. 

In order to accommodate physical distancing/occupancy levels, appointment times may need to be staggered. 

When speaking with clients during scheduling and appointment reminders, ask 

clients to consider: 

○ Rescheduling if they become sick, are placed on self-isolation, or have 

travelled out of the country within the last 14 days. 

○ Attend appointments alone, and do not bring friends or children. Advise 

clients to do the same if possible. Ask clients who else will be present at 

the appointment and schedule a time with the client where there will be 

fewer people or the client will be alone if possible. 

Consider emailing the client any forms that need to be filled out so clients can 

complete them prior to your arrival.  

Bring your own pen, and if the client needs to sign forms, they should be not sharing a pen with you.

If you have questions or concerns when assessing the safety of the workplace you will be visiting, please consult and involve the manager or clinical supervisor of Arukah Rehab. 

In your assessment, also identify areas of highest risk where people gather, such as high traffic areas in homes, smaller meeting rooms with less ventilation and facilities. It is best to conduct the treatments outdoors if possible. 

Identify job tasks and processes where you will be close to other workers or members of the public. This can occur in the place you treat clients, vehicles, or at other work locations you travel. 

Identify all tools, machinery, exercise aids and all types of equipment that you will be using with the client. Sanitize thoroughly personal tools such as a goniometer and take the necessary steps to avoid sharing equipment for exercise and other items between clients. 

Identify surfaces that people touch often, such as doorknobs, elevator buttons, and light switches. Implement protocols with your clients to reduce the risks. Notify us of any concerns in order for us to implement further measures. 

Select and implement protocols to minimize the risks of transmission. Look to the following for information, input, and guidance. For additional information worksafebc.com, and please review industry-specific protocol on worksafebc.com and specifically for health professionals: 

https://www.worksafebc.com/en/about-us/covid-19-updates/covid-19-returning-safe-operation/h ealth-professionals 

To determine whether any are relevant to your industry. Guidance for additional sectors will be posted as they become available. If protocols are developed specific to your sector, implement these to the extent that they are applicable to the risks at your workplace. You may need to identify and implement additional protocols if the posted protocols don’t address all the risks. Please refer to Orders, guidance, and notices issued by the provincial health officer and relevant to your industry. Your health and safety association or other professional and industry associations such as from your College. 

Reduce the risk of person-to-person transmission 

To reduce the risk of the virus spreading through droplets in the air, implement protocols to protect against your identified risks. Different protocols offer different levels of protection. Wherever possible, use the protocol that offers the highest level of protection. Consider controls from additional levels if the first level isn’t practicable or does not completely control the risk. You will likely need to incorporate controls from various levels to address the risk at your workplace. 

Please see the following chart from Worksafe. Please note that PPE is necessary since we cannot: control occupancy limits for our client’s homes, develop barriers such as acrylic plexiglass, or control traffic to be one way. In addition for hands on treatments such as assisting with stretching etc, it is not always possible to keep physical distancing. Therefore, a mask is required as part of our company policy and to ask the clients to wear a mask as well. 

The following chart is from Worksafe BC:

First level protection (elimination): 

Limit the number of people at the workplace or wherever you are visiting your clients and ensure physical distance whenever possible. Limiting the number of people in a workplace is an important way to ensure physical distancing is maintained. [Public Health has developed guidance for the retail food and grocery store sector that requires at least 5 square metres of unencumbered floor space per person (workers and customers). This allows for variation depending on the size of the facility, and may be a sensible approach for determining maximum capacity for employers from other sectors that do not have specific guidance on capacity from Public Health.] In order to reduce the number of people at your worksite, please consider work-from-home arrangements, virtual meetings, rescheduling work tasks, and limiting the number of people and at your workplace. 

Please keep other workers, clients, and others at least 2 metres apart, wherever possible. Options include revising work schedules and reorganizing work tasks. 

Arukah Rehab has prohibited all visitors to our office at this time. 

Please notify clients to keep physical distance for treatments whenever possible. Please ensure other workers such as other health professionals or homemaking workers keep physical 

distancing. Notify clients to schedule your visit apart from other workers or other 

people in the work environment whenever possible. Please keep in a separate room with your 

client away from other workers or people if possible. Use a large room with windows open and 

plenty of ventilation where possible. Conduct the meeting in a nearby park, the patio, backyard or outside away 

from crowds of people wherever possible. 

Second level protection (engineering): Barriers and partitions 

Barriers to block or separate yourself from clients such as an acrylic shield or plexiglass barrier can reduce the risk for both parties, but is not possible in our industry of home health. Therefore, wearing a quality mask and asking clients to do the same becomes even more important. Where both parties wear a mask, the risk is substantially reduced.

Third level protection (administrative): Rules and guidelines: 

This document contains the rules and guidelines for how workers should conduct themselves. 

One-way doors or walkways may not be possible in our industry of home health, so both parties wearing a mask is crucial.  Use single-use (disposable) products, and 

wipe down to sanitize any equipment after each, but avoid sharing equipment. Have clients limit the amount of people who will 

be present during your visit if possible or do your visit in a place with less people. 

Fourth level protection: Using masks (in addition to other control measures) 

Please review the information on selecting and using masks and instructions on how to use a mask. Please understand the limitations of masks to protect the wearer from respiratory droplets. Please understand other control measures need to be implemented in addition to masks. Please consult Arukah Rehab Management for any questions on the correct use of masks or other safety control measures. 

Our policy is to always wear a mask when seeing clients and to ask clients to do the same.

We also highly recommend a face shield, safety goggles or eye covering to reduce the risk of droplets entering the eyes from clients talking close to you. Always wash your hands after treatments, use hand sanitizer and be aware of cross contamination from your hands or from client contact. 

Reduce the risk of surface transmission through effective cleaning and hygiene practices 

Ensure you have handwashing access when visiting clients and bring your own hand sanitizer or soap in case there is no access. 

It is policy that you must wash your hands before treating clients and after seeing clients. Frequent handwashing and good hygiene practices are essential to reduce the spread of the virus. 

Our cleaning protocol is to clean at a minimum after each client for all common areas and surfaces such as your tools, equipment, vehicle interiors, tables/benches etc. Please avoid sharing equipment or tools. Please note we can order equipment for each client if ICBC approves and based on your recommendations. If the client allows, please clean/disinfect surfaces you may have come in contact with in a client’s home. Our clothes may carry the virus especially if using public transit etc.

Please note: exercise tools and other equipment is not recommended to be shared between clients during this time. Items such as resistance bands, stability balls etc, would be difficult to sanitize thoroughly. 

We advise to change into a separate set of street clothes and footwear before leaving work. 

Work clothing should be placed in a bag and laundered after every work day. 

Shower immediately upon returning home after every shift. 

Equipment is to be sanitized to prevent surface transmission between clients. 

Commonly touched surfaces and shared equipment must be cleaned and 

disinfected after contact between individuals, even when not visibly soiled. 

Towels are not to be shared between clients. 

Clean before or during the client visit if the situation requires it. Do not share or reuse towels, etc, between clients. Please ensure you have proper disinfectant cleaning agents. Avoid sharing exercise equipment, mats etc. Please ensure you have adequate materials, proper cleaning supplies, PPE, etc, before seeing clients. 

Policy

If you are ill or showing any symptoms, please cancel your appointments and notify us so we can possibly find a replacement worker for your client while you isolate and recover. Please screen clients before your visits to see if they are showing any symptoms in the past 10 days or if anyone who will be in the environment has been showing symptoms such as their family members.

Our workplace policies ensure that workers and others showing symptoms of COVID-19 are prohibited from the workplace or from visiting clients. Anyone who has had symptoms of COVID-19 in the last 10 days. Symptoms include fever, chills, new or worsening cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, and new muscle aches or headaches or anyone directed by Public Health to self-isolate.

Anyone who has arrived from outside of Canada or who has had contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case must self-isolate for 14 days and monitor for symptoms. Visitors are prohibited in our office. First aid attendants have been provided OFAA protocols for use during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have a working alone policy in place (if needed). We have a work from home policy in place (if needed). 

Please notify us of any signs or potential risk of violence that may arise as clients and members of the public adapt to safety procedures, restrictions or modifications to the workplace. Please see the attached violence prevention program. 

Our policy addresses workers who may start to feel ill at work. It includes the following: Sick workers should report to us and seek first aid, even with mild symptoms. Sick workers will be asked to wash or sanitize their hands, provided with a mask, and isolated. We will ask you to go straight home. [Consult the BC COVID-19 Self-Assessment Tool, or call 811 for further guidance related to testing and self-isolation.] If you as a worker is severely ill (e.g., difficulty breathing, chest pain), call 911. Please clean and disinfect any surfaces that you have come into contact with if you are ill and as a regular protocol. 

Communication plans and training 

You must know how to keep yourself safe while at the workplace or place of visit with our clients. You must communicate to us if you have questions, concerns or require further instructions or training. Please ensure all policies and procedures are followed. 

Monitor your workplace/client environment and we will update our plans as necessary 

Things may change as our business operates and as the Covid-19 situation evolves. Please monitor risks and keep up to date with safety procedures on the worksafe website and the latest PHO orders. If you identify a new area of concern, or if it seems like something isn’t working, notify us to take steps to update our policies and procedures. We make changes to our policies and procedures as necessary. With health and safety concerns, please contact the Arukah Rehab manager or clinical supervisor as soon as possible.