Sharp Mesa Vista and the Sharp McDonald Center continue to provide in-person mental health services in inpatient, residential, intensive-outpatient (IOP) and partial hospital programs. Although we offer some IOP services via telehealth, interns on all rotations are coming to the hospital and involve direct-care, in person. We provide care to the most vulnerable mental health populations, and as stressors increase in our society, the need for hospital-based mental health services remains very high. We take our responsibility to provide essential health care very seriously.

Safety is a pillar at Sharp. We are 100% invested in protecting everyone’s health, and we are proud to have a workforce that is deeply committed to creating and adhering to processes that maximize safety. Many measures are in place to mitigate patient and staff members’ risk of exposure to COVID-19. These measures shift from time to time as new guidance comes out from the CDC and Sharp’s infectious disease specialists, and as we learn and further refine our processes.

Current examples of mitigation efforts include:

• All staff are required to wear masks at all times and face shields when in patient care areas.
• Patients are asked to wear masks at all times.
• Inpatients are tested on admission and are asked to stay in their rooms until a negative result is obtained.
• Enhanced in-room programming and safety protocols are available for patients restricted to their rooms.
• Social distancing is carefully enforced in all settings (e.g., group sizes reduced, chairs removed from meeting spaces to support max occupancy).
• Signage and “cross-monitoring” support a “3W” campaign (Wear a mask, Watch your distance, Wash your hands).
• Inpatients are provided with masks and outpatients are asked to bring/wear face coverings (and are offered mask if they do not have one).
• Visitors are very limited, screened and required to wear PPE.
• Employees are screened at the beginning of every shift.
• Many of our supervision sessions, seminars and meetings are taking place via Microsoft Teams.
• In person meetings are allowed only when social distancing is possible – masks are mandatory during all in-person meetings. Some meetings are held outside.
• COVID risk mitigation is reviewed at a daily management huddle at every Sharp facility and leaders from across the facilities meet at least weekly.
• And much more