Laguna Honda Hospital, owned and operated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH), is one of the largest skilled nursing facilities in the country. It serves nearly 800 residents and is the only skilled nursing facility for HIV/AIDS in the San Francisco Bay Area. In April 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Civic Edge was asked to support the hospital by providing onsite, pandemic-related communications to support residents and their families.
Our team’s work included one full-time, onsite consultant each weekday with availability to support on weekends and after hours as needed. Fully embedded into the hospital’s workstreams, our team was able to quickly understand processes, collaborate with Laguna Honda Hospital staff, and provide immediate support in maintaining communications. COVID-19 communications focused on safety, with information for residents, their families, and staff to stay safe and care for each other. Development of a non-crisis or post-COVID-19 communications plan included strategies for handling different COVID-19 related events, such as new cases announced, and recommendations for how to accomplish daily, weekly, and monthly communications tasks.
Our team’s work extended through December 2020, supporting development of a broad range of communications in English, Spanish, and Chinese around the evolving COVID-19 situation. Internal hospital communications led by our team included daily communications like the Daily Situational Status sent to all employees, as-needed communications like Resident Updates sent to all resident care teams, and the Weekly Memo sent to all residents. Collateral produced included posters detailing safety protocols and the Laguna Honda Hospital’s 2020 Annual Report.