Emilee Bogdan
Emilee Bogdan, a care coordinator with Castell, has worked alongside a small group of caregivers from surgical services and other areas who’ve been redeployed to the call center since the early days of the pandemic. “It’s been a good experience to be there since the beginning,” says Emilee. “We’ve looked for opportunities to help and support each other during a crazy time.”
Emilee says initially she was the only person sending out testing orders, and she managed to stay organized in spite of the chaos. “Day one I was hand faxing orders for all COVID tests to clinics all over the state. I faxed thousands of orders. Every day for about two months our processes changed every hour.”
Today, Emilee is the only remaining caregiver from Castell still working at the call center. She has a staff of about 20 caregivers she manages. “I’ve chosen to stay and support the hotline while also working my regular job,” says Emilee. “I know so much that it made sense to offer my continued support. This role has involved constant change and training, especially to keep up staffing, but I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve met so many people I normally wouldn’t have contact with.”
Ben Becker, director of the clinical communications center and post-acute care, who’s also helped manage the call center says, “These dedicated caregivers have coordinated trainings, managed turnover, taken leadership roles, and dealt with sometimes angry and fearful callers — all while working in a department that doesn’t technically exist.”
Ben says when the call center began it very quickly went from about 40 calls a day to 3,000 to 4,000 calls a day. “It’s been a huge challenge,” he says, adding that as call volumes went down in May and then back up in June, the call center has needed more support. “We’re now around 1,500 calls a day, but we still struggle to answer all of them.”
A unique challenge has been a 30 percent employee turnover rate, as caregivers get called back to their departments, says Ben. “Often we’d train people one week, and they’d be gone the next. Fortunately, we’re in the process of hiring temporary workers who will be here for the long term.”
Camille Jensen, RN
“It’s definitely been a learning experience for all of us, says Camille Jensen, RN, from Intermountain Medical Center, who's working a team leader at the call center and has been there since the beginning. “It’s been amazing to see how everyone stepped up to a new and unknown challenge and gave their best. It has moments of exhaustion and frustration, but also times where you feel you can really make a difference to a patient and the circumstances of this world we’re living in right now.”
Blake Anderson, clinical communications manager, who’s also helped manage the call center adds, “I can tell you we couldn’t have run this hotline for all these months without the nurses and other redeployed caregivers who’ve stayed with us. A huge thanks to everyone who’s gone above and beyond.”
In addition to thanking Emilee and Camille, Ben and Blake would like to give a shout-out to Nichola Taylor, RN, from Riverton Hospital, Jen Lazurtegui, RN, from Intermountain Medical Center, Coni Robinson, RN, clinical education consultant, Kerry Palakanis, executive director, Intermountain Connect Care operations, and Stephanie Astle, administrative assistant with the clinical communications center.