Keeping Pace With COVID: Week of January 14th, 2022

Dear Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

Greetings from a cold, cloudy Elkins Park campus. I would like to thank all of you for contributing to our enhanced mitigation strategies across our clinics and campus to improve everyone’s safety. Together we are successfully implementing: our vaccination booster requirement, upgraded mask requirement, MERV13 filtration systems, surveillance testing, de-densified spaces, and alternative teaching modalities. Check out the full list of updates on our COVID Protocol Summary Update page. You may wonder: “is all this working?” As of this week, our positivity rate is 2.3%. We can expect our rate to follow the region’s case trends. We will stay the course – listening to your feedback, monitoring changes in CDC guidance, and adjusting our Salus Safety Strategy accordingly. Additional efforts are underway:

• Booster Events. Sun Ray Drugs Chelten Avenue is holding booster events on Friday, January 21, 2022 at The Eye Institute from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Friday, January 28, 2022 at The Hafter Center, Elkins Park Campus from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Family members are welcome. Bring your vaccine card with both dates/doses; photo ID and insurance information, if applicable. Special thanks to Dr. Tracy Offerdahl for helping us to organize these.
• Register your booster. Our booster requirement is effective February 13th. Students can expect an email to upload their booster data. Faculty and staff can register their booster data here.
• 
  Outdoor Dining. Just off the Café at our Elkins Park campus, we have created an additional space to eat and relax. Check out the great heaters!
• Questions. Our Pandemic Safety Officer Brian Zuckerman is your single point of contact if you have questions regarding what to do if: you are exposed, develop symptoms, test positive or wonder when it is safe to return to campus and clinics. Email him at bzuckerman@salus.edu. We will also be issuing additional guidance early next week.

In other news:

DEI GETS A FACELIFT: Check out our new mission statement, logo and revised web page for the Office of DEI here.

NEW SLI DIRECTOR: The Speech Language Institute (SLI) of Salus University welcomes Kara Maharay, MS, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, as director of Clinical Education. Read more about Kara here.

TOLAND SCHOLARSHIP WINNER: Taylor Frank is the 2021 Toland Memorial Scholarship winner. Read more about Taylor here.

FACULTY FOCUS: Click here to read about Anne Marie Ruckdeschel, MA, CCC-SLP, a clinical educator in the Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) program.

STAFF SPOTLIGHT: This week’s Staff Spotlight is on Cheryl Keslar, who works in our Finance department. Read more about Cheryl here.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I am in awe of your abilities to roll with the many changes we’ve experienced throughout the pandemic. I am also aware this takes a great deal of mental and physical energy, and like me, you may also feel tired, frustrated and disheartened. We should be done with this pandemic!!! The pandemic will end, but in the meantime, we will continue to be vigilant and adaptable. The Marines have a term for this – Semper Gumby – Always flexible!

Guidance from official entities such as the CDC may appear confusing and difficult to follow. They are following the science, which also is constantly changing. With every adaptation, we are becoming smarter and more resilient. My best advice (which I try to follow myself) is to stay busy, try to eat healthy foods, get enough sleep and regular exercise. While this won’t curtail the pandemic, these habits help us all better cope with the stresses that come along with it.

Please continue to wear your masks when out and about, socially distance, wash your hands frequently and look out for one other. We are SALUS STRONG because of what you do every day to help keep us all healthy and safe! Thank you for that!

Mike