Tea and Thank You takes place this Thursday at Richmond Hospital

On Thursday, December 4, Richmond Community of Care staff and volunteers are invited to a Staff Appreciation Christmas Tea.

The celebration will take place in the Ralph Fisher Auditorium, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Along with some seasonal entertainment, you’ll have a chance to meet and greet VCH Richmond’s new Chief Operating Officer, Jennifer MacKenzie.

This year, the traditional presentation of the Richmond Hospital/Healthcare Auxiliary promissory note will be made instead at the Auxiliary’s Annual General Meeting in April.

If you plan to attend the Christmas Tea, please bring a donation of a non-perishable food item for the Richmond Food Bank.

We’ll serve you this year

Everyone, including Santa, will be asked to practice excellent hand hygiene at this year’s Staff Appreciation Christmas Tea.

Flu season has arrived early in the Lower Mainland this year, and food-sharing guidelines are now in place across VCH, effective until March 2015.

To ensure good health for everyone during the upcoming festive season, we’re asking that you allow yourselves to be served from the chocolate fountains, and that you use the serving utensils provided, instead of your hands, to choose your selections from the savory and sweets platters.

Belated Christmas for off-site services and clinical programs

The food-sharing guidelines will curtail our ability to deliver staff appreciation goodie trays on Dec. 4 to individual sites – Minoru Residence, Richmond Lions Manor, 8100 Granville Avenue, and at all other clinical programs and services.

We’re sorry for this disruption to our yearly seasonal tradition. You have our word, though, we will send out the trays in April, as soon as flu and norovirus season ends, in appreciation of your hard work and dedication.

We look forward to hosting everyone that can make it to Richmond Hospital on Thursday, Dec. 4. We look forward to celebrating all over again, come April, at the sites impacted by early arrival of the flu and norovirus season this year.

Help us minimize the risk from flu and norovirus

We appreciate that sharing food is traditional at this time of year, but we must all remain vigilant to protect our patients, clients and residents – and all staff – from influenza and norovirus.

Last week, Dr. Elizabeth Bryce, Regional Medical Director, Infection Control/Medical Microbiologist, asked that all staff and physicians make every effort to refrain from sharing food at VCH facilities until the end of March 2015. In particular, food should not be consumed in clinical areas (e.g. patient wards, laboratory, procedure areas).

If group activities or appreciation gifts involving food are planned, we can minimize risk by:

• Practice excellent hand hygiene – Make alcohol-based hand rubs – with a least 70 per cent ethyl alcohol – readily available, and encourage use prior to people obtaining food and beverages.
• Catered group events – Enlisting staff/servers to use tongs/spoons to serve all courses (appetizer to dessert) to participants and guests.
• Gifts and prizes – Ensuring all food gifts and prizes are individually wrapped and requesting individual recipients to enjoy their gift or prize at home. For team appreciation gifts, boxes and tins must contain individually wrapped cookies and treats.

We also encourage you and your teams to receive your influenza vaccination. Thank you for your understanding and we appreciate your support over the coming months.