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Last week, I shared that we would be creating a special Baptist Foundation fund specifically to assist our team members experiencing financial hardships due to COVID-19. I am very excited to announce that this COVID-19 Employee Assistance Fund is available now to team members. You can apply starting tomorrow through Friday, July 31, 2020.
The COVID-19 Employee Assistance Fund will be available to Full-time, part-time, and PRN employees, team members in their initial 90-day introductory period, and even team members on leaves-of-absence. If eligible, here’s how the process will work. Starting tomorrow, active team members can click on the COVID-19 Employee Assistance Fund banner on the Baptist Intranet to access a special share point site dedicated to our new Foundation fund offering. The site will provide specific information regarding eligibility, fund amounts, and instructions on how you can easily apply for assistance on-line. For any team member who doesn’t have access to the Baptist intranet or needs help with the application process for any reason, the HR team at each entity can assist. All applications will be carefully reviewed and assistance granted for those with COVID- 19 hardships. In addition, since my announcement on April 27 regarding the establishment of this Fund, a number of you have asked if you can make contributions to help our team members in need. I am so proud but not surprised at the outpouring of generosity as we all pull together to live our mission by serving those in need. For any of you who are able and want to make contributions to this worthy cause, you can do so by going to the COVID-19 share point site from the Baptist Intranet and completing a donation form. There are several ways you can donate, including through payroll deduction and PTO donation. Our Baptist Foundation will match all of your donations. Our goal is to help as many team members as we possibly can who are facing financial challenges related to this national crisis. And while we’re speaking of donations, a grateful family of our patient, Mr. Tommy Eldred donated money to help purchase 10 iPads to be used at Baptist DeSoto so that families could more easily stay in touch with their loved ones in the hospital during limited visitation. Mr. Eldred died of COVID-19 at Baptist DeSoto but his niece Cindy is an ER nurse manager there and their family is encouraging people to donate money to the Baptist Foundation’s COVID-19 iPad fund to pay for more iPads for the system. You can call the Baptist Foundation to find out more about that fund as well, but take a look at their story.
