NEWS

Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled to reinstate the CMS Vaccine Mandate for the states under the temporary stay. Following the SCOTUS ruling, CMS eatablished deadlines for the states under the temporary stay (which included Oklahoma). Their deadlines coinside with our vaccine deadlines (30 days from notice), therefore our vaccine deadlines will remain in effect…first deadline 2/11 and the second 3/4. This mandate is for all healthcare facilities in all states (except Texas…for now) who accept Medicare and Medicaid (SoonerCare) insurances not just the Good Shepherd.

The 12th Street Pharmacy will be closed temporarily as Jessica is scheduled to have her baby next week and we have been unable to secure a temporary pharmacist to cover one of the locations. Congratulations, Jessica!!! We are so excited for your family!

Important things to know:

1. Everyone - Communicate with the patients (Jordan will be making FB posts, a sign will be posted on the pharmacy, and the Pharmacy Team are going to push out messages for refill requests) BUT we need your help to let the patients know that they will need to pick up their prescriptions at the Walnut Health Center - 1104 Walnut.

Hey everyone,

I’m so sorry but after speaking with Dr. Carnahan and the Leadership Team we felt it best to postpone the January 14th Pep Rally due to increased cases and risk of Omicron. We will watch the numbers for a reschedule date. I’m so sorry! I was looking forward to hanging out with you all.

Happy New Year!

I do not know about you guys, but December was a complete blur for me. It went by so fast! I feel like the whole 2021 went by super-fast, but that may be because I am a Grammy now. They say that years go by faster as you get older - I think that may be true. I pray, whether yours went fast or slow, that your holidays were full of blessings too numerous to count.

As we get back in the swing of things here at the GSCC, we want to start by having time together with you to get us all focused on the future. So, we thought a Pep Rally (aka staff meeting) would be the best way to make that happen. We have scheduled the Pep Rally for next Friday, January 14th from 12:30p – 4:30p at H2O Church (same place as last time). We decided that with it being such short notice, we need to have it after hours because we do not want to inconvenience patients.

Because it is short notice, I am making it optional for you to attend, BUT before you decide that you do not want to spend your Friday afternoon with us, please know we have planned a special treat for you all…

We have a final decision from the Board following the emergency meeting today. We are having an all-staff meeting tomorrow, Friday, December 3rd at 1p to go over the changes to the COVID-19 Vaccination Policy. Please be at H2O Church (4420 W Broadway – location of our last staff meeting) at 1p.

Yesterday a federal judge temporarily stopped the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in the United States. The Leadership Team is meeting today to discuss next steps and we will update you as soon as possible. Thanks for being patient with us as we navigate the situation.

It is with a heavy heart that I announce that we have decided to cancel the Christmas Party. Why? Because the Vaccine Mandate deadline is set for December 6th, and we did not feel that having a Christmas Party two days later would be an appropriate time to host a celebration. We want to honor our team members and their decisions regarding the mandate, and it did not seem that having a party two days later would be the kind thing to do. Although the Christmas Party is cancelled, Christmas and the spirit of giving will not be…it will just be different than we planned.

There will be some important changes taking place this weekend with regard to our email and TEAMS accounts to better protect the IT infrastructure for the GSCC. We are transitioning to a new email domain and upgrading some IT things that most of us will never understand. What does this mean for you?:

1. Those of you with laptops, please leave your laptops at your workstations this weekend and ensure they are turned on and lid is open

2. If you have a desktop, please make sure it is turned on

3. You will have a new email address beginning on Monday; your email will be your firstname.lastname@ibuildhealth.org

4. You will continue to receive any emails with the @gsccardmore.com address but your outgoing address will be the @ibuildhealth.org address

As you all know, the COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate was released a few days ago and the Leadership Team has been working through the requirements and how they will affect you as a GSCC employee.

There have been untold numbers of consequences for all of us because of this pandemic some for the good…like us focusing more on what is truly important like family and our relationships and some for the bad…loss of friends and family we love and then some added consequences that are just plain annoying…like wearing masks!!!

I believe that we have all been given free will to make choices that affect our lives…good, bad or indifferent. It is also true that others who have free will can make choices that have consequences for us...consequences that we would never choose for ourselves, like the consequences that we have all dealt with because of COVID-19. We can and do make all sorts of choices that affect us as well as affect others. But something that we often take for granted or forget…is that although we have free will to make choices, we do not get to choose the consequences for those choices nor how far reaching those choices become.