CareOne is delighted to announce the launch of its philanthropic initiative, Summer of Sharing, for the second year in a row!

Summer of Sharing is CareOne’s company-wide charitable giving program aimed at supporting numerous social causes benefiting the communities that CareOne serves. Each of CareOne’s 60+ buildings in the northeast have selected a local charity for which they will raise funds throughout the summer. Among the organizations CareOne will support this year include:

Steps Together

PALS- Parsippany Police Athletic League

American Legion Post 21 Cresskill

Daisy Rec Camp

Imagine A Center for Coping with Loss

Livingston Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Camden County Animal Welfare Association

Parsippanypal.org

Pawsitively 4 Pink

Middletown Helps its Own

Mobile Meals of Hamilton Township

Women In Transition

The Frances Foundation

Heading Home Inc.

Paramus Board of Education

Team Noah Foundation

Wilmington Food Pantry

Criolas Contra Cancer

Fulfill Food Bank Monmouth County

Springfield Carnival Association (Caribbean American African Athletic Social Club)

Weymouth Food Pantry

Massachusetts Alzheimer's Association

American Diabetes Association

Southbury Needy Fund

MA Brain Injury Association

Top Dog Therapy

Randall's Rescue

Meals on Wheels North Jersey

American Legion post

Gilda's Club Grand Rapids

From We Can't to We Can

Friendship Circle

At the core of CareOne’s values, Summer of Sharing reinforces the integrated health network’s commitment to compassionate care and community. CareOne’s involvement in its local communities, coupled with its personal affiliations with the causes it cherishes, has helped drive meaningful impact. Beyond this, the Summer of Sharing initiative has fostered a culture of giving, inspiring others to help those in need.

“A cornerstone of CareOne’s success lies in our teammates who provide exceptional care, both inside and outside of our facilities,” said CareOne CEO Daniel Straus. “The $60,000 raised last summer was invested directly back into the communities we are proud to call home. This year’s goal of $75,000 is aimed at extending that impact to create lasting and positive change.”

The program will run from June 1 to August 31. CareOne will document fundraising progress and share ways for communities, employees, patients and family members to lend support throughout the summer!

Follow us along our journey:

Twitter: @CareOneCares
Facebook: @care1cares
LinkedIn: @CareOne
Instagram: @CareOneCares

The post CareOne Announces Second Annual Summer of Sharing Charitable Giving Program appeared first on CareOne.

At the heart of everything we do is our commitment to compassion, community and caring. In addition to caring for your loved ones each and every day, we have always believed in making a positive impact in our communities. We know that by working together, our efforts can create ripples of change.

That is why we are elated to announce the official kickoff of CareOne’s Summer of Sharing. Each of our 57 buildings has selected a local charity or cause they feel passionate about and will spend the entire summer collecting donations to support it.

Our Summer of Sharing initiative enables us to give back to the communities we serve and affect change on a local level. Organizations selected by CareOne facilities include food pantries, animal shelters, mental health foundations, children’s hospitals, Veteran’s Affairs and many more.

While all funds raised will make an impact, this program is about much more than raising money. Our goal is to foster a culture of sharing and community involvement while inspiring others to give back to those in need.

“At CareOne, we truly believe that success lies not only in providing exceptional care to those in need, but also in uplifting those around us,” said CareOne CEO Daniel Straus. “Summer of Sharing is a reflection of our core values. Our responsibility as a healthcare organization extends beyond our facilities’ walls, and this initiative allows us to create lasting, positive change.”

When supporting those in need, everyone’s a winner. But that doesn’t mean we can’t also have a little competitive fun! In the spirit of competition, we’ll keep you posted throughout the summer to see how our fundraising efforts are going and which facilities are most on the move. After Labor Day Weekend, we’ll let you know just how big of an impact we’ve made.

If you’d like to contribute to one of our local causes, you can reach out via live chat on the website for more information.

Follow us along our journey:

Twitter: @CareOneCares
Facebook: @care1cares
LinkedIn: @CareOne
Instagram: @CareOneCares

Charities We’re Supporting:

Adopt A Senior
American Lung Association
Anchor House Inc.
Atmiya Care Charities
Boston Children’s Hospital
Camp Sunshine
Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation
Daisy Recreation Charity
Edison Animal Shelter
Englewood Food Pantry
Families for Families, Wycoff NJ
Father Bills & MainSpring
Forgotten Angels Equine Rescue
Friendly Food Pantry
Golf Western Mass
Hanover Township Families Back to School Drive
Haven from Hunger
Healing Abuse Working for Change
Huntington’s Disease Society of America
Interfaith Neighbors
Interfaith Food Bank
Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Northern NJ
Livingston Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Majoda Stables
Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts
Middletown Helps its Own
Millbury Lions Club
Millbury Senior Center
Mission 22: United in the War Against Veteran Suicide
New Milford Human Service
Newton Food Pantry
Nothing is Impossible
Oradell Senior Center
Paramus VFW Post 6699
Shriner’s Hospital for Children
Smith Vocational High School
Southbury Needy Fund
South Jersey Coping Clinic
Steps Together
Table of Hope: Morristown, NJ
The Alzheimer’s Association
The Association for the Relief of Aged Women
The Cherry Hill Police Department
The Mental Health Foundation
Vested Interest in K9s
Walk to End Alzheimer’s
Wayne VA American Legion
Williamstown Community Chest

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Training staff and quickly adapting to new coronavirus guidance from the federal government have been instrumental for CareOne’s success in treating and recovering more than 3,000 of patients during the current public health crisis.

“We didn’t know exactly what we were dealing with, but based on the information that we had, we gave our staff the tools to be prepared to deal with what was coming,” said Toya Cornelious, CareOne chief clinical officer, in a McKnight’s interview.

The New Jersey-based company, which operates a chain of more than 50 post-acute care and assisted living facilities along the East Coast, has taken care of about 4,000 coronavirus patients and had about 85% of them recover.

Early on during the pandemic, CareOne quickly began to provide additional staff training for specific units and buildings in preparation of taking in and caring for coronavirus patients coming from hospitals.

That meant staff members had to learn how to care for COVID-19 patients, bringing in more equipment, like negative pressure systems, and learning new methods of care for advanced respiratory conditions.

“A good portion of what we do is post-acute care and getting people well to go home on a regular day, pre-pandemic,” Cornelious explained. “So for that piece [staff] was already well-versed in. It was just applying that to the pandemic and caring for these people who some of us were just unprepared to care for.”

The success didn’t come without struggles. Cornelious explained there’s a continuous need to pivot as new information about the virus becomes available and federal guidelines change. She noted for example, that recommended methods of care and treatment for coronavirus patients are constantly changing.

Cornelious said CareOne’s leadership team wants to ensure “that we are always on top of and working even above the standards that are applied to this virus.”

“Of course, there were times where [staff members] were getting sick, so we had to make sure that we had enough support to care for the staff. With the support from our senior leadership, we were able to support our staff in making sure that we always had enough [personal protective equipment] and that we always had the appropriate amount of staff to care for the residents,” she added.

Executives also praised staff members for their dedication to help the thousands of patients recover.

“It’s been pretty extraordinary, the work that staff has done in terms of putting themselves at jeopardy and the sacrifices they’re making professionally and personally,” noted Thomas McKinney, senior vice president of CareOne in a McKnight’s interview. “I just want to make sure we underscore that.”

He added that as the virus continues to move throughout the country, it will be important that the industry “look to those providers who have had significant experience dealing with the virus to hopefully learn and continue to improve our approach within the post-acute care industry.”

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By Toya Cornelious

Days after winter turned into spring this March, we received a call that changed our lives.

The urgent request came from the New Jersey Department of Health asking CareOne, my employer, to provide urgent support and resources for a deteriorating situation at St. Joseph’s Seniors Home-Nursing Center and Assisted Living in Woodbridge.

The facility had been overrun with COVID-19 and was barely hanging on. The coronavirus had spread like wildfire infecting the staff, primarily comprised of nuns, along with many residents. More than 80 residents were depending on just a few dedicated nuns for their care.

They were some of our most vulnerable members of our society, and we could not in good conscience turn our backs on them.

They desperately needed help. Our help.

When we arrived the situation at St. Joseph’s was dire. The nuns, almost all of whom were ill with COVID-19, were working around the clock. Many of the residents had the virus but we didn’t know who because, despite the nun’s best efforts, direct care had taken priority over updating the paper records at St. Joseph’s. As the state advised us, they (and we along with them) had no choice but to assume that all the residents were positive.

What followed was nothing short of extraordinary courage by our staff. Despite the shock and collapse of anything remotely resembling primary care, we quickly supported the sisters to provide relief and triaged the situation.

The Department of Health issued an Emergency Order closing St. Joseph’s and directed the evacuation of the residents to one of our CareOne facilities. This required a herculean effort to coordinate the logistics including first relocating residents from CareOne at Hanover in Whippany to other CareOne facilities. In less than 72 hours after the Department of Health call, 79 residents from St. Joseph’s were transferred by the Office of Emergency Management, state police, and our staff to our Hanover facility.

Along with my team, we followed CDC and Health Department guidelines to maintain a safe environment and protect our patients and staff. Equally important, we ensured that the residents were treated with dignity and kept comfortable.

I was personally on-site to greet each resident as they arrived at the Hanover facility. One family stood in the distance and upon speaking with them, they indicated that their loved one was being transferred from St. Joseph’s and they hadn’t been able to visit with her due to the pandemic. Albeit a brief interaction, the family was able to see their loved one and tell her how much they loved her.

Many of the residents were in declining health and were hospice appropriate upon arriving into CareOne’s care. Our staff assessed each resident and developed a plan of care based on their medical status and the families’ goals of care. These residents became our family. It was difficult and demanding, physically and emotionally, but our dedication and resolve never faltered. If anything, it grew stronger.

Recently, CareOne transferred back scores of the former COVID-19-positive residents to St. Joseph’s, fully recovered. Our staff and nurses made these recoveries possible. I know them to be among the best-trained and prepared in the country and I believe without their actions and sacrifice many more lives would have been lost.

It has also been quite emotionally and psychologically draining to witness the decline of those that I’ve come to know and love. People I’ve bonded with, called friends and cared for as family over time have been lost fighting this virus…and I grieve, we all do.

I am not alone. Fighting this pandemic has taken its toll across the healthcare industry in so many ways. Nearly 600 of them; nurses, caregivers, doctors, paramedics and other essential staff have died from this insidious disease.

I recently tested positive for the virus. Having lost a dear friend to COVID-19, I was intimately aware of how devastating it could be, but I wasn’t overly concerned for my own welfare. The scariest moment was knowing that my husband and young daughters had been exposed and were symptomatic. Thankfully, we have all recovered physically. The rest will take time.

I am hopeful that we finally have the upper hand in this fight and the worst has passed. Now, with change ahead of us again with spring approaching summer, I hope we can turn toward a more optimistic season.

Toya Cornelious is chief clinical officer at CareOne Management for all of those who helped at CareOne at Hanover Township. She’s also a C.A.R.E.S. award winner.

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