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HENRY HILL
In Memoriam

As a home care provider in the initial COVID-19 hotspot of NYC, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester, Americare Certified Special Services quickly recognized that it was dealing with an emergency of unprecedented scale and timeframe.

Americare nurses, therapists, pharmacists, and home health aides are serving thousands of patients. They are joined by a team of clerical/support staff doing the foundation work that makes this care possible, including an Information Technology division that has been front-and-center in Americare's planning effort.

Americare needed to establish the capability for staff to work from home wherever possible, enhance existing telehealth programs with video capabilities for clinical visits, establish online screening and educational tools for use on laptops and cellphones, and reporting systems for timely updates to track symptoms, infections, and overall status.

Right in the middle of this IT fray was Henry Hill, Americare's Manager of Network Services.

As Americare established work-from-home procedures, Henry guided the IT team to ensure quality review RNs could access Americare's system while home health aides and field nurses could conference over Zoom or Microsoft Team when anxious patients in need of care were refusing visits.

A longstanding employee of Americare, Henry knew our IT systems in and out. But more importantly, he had an invaluable understanding of Americare's employees, their roles, and their IT capabilities.

Screening questions were blasted to Americare's entire field staff daily to ensure timely symptom reporting. Staff extensions were connected to cell phones so that patients calling Americare's lines were connected directly to the team they knew.

Not surprisingly, all these efforts required a massive amount of handholding. In the midst of it all, Henry guided the IT team to ensure that all staff not only had their problems resolved but, even from a distance, always felt supported by Americare.

Henry Hill and his IT team were able to accomplish the unimaginable for Americare. Americare was not only able to ensure all of its existing patients were serviced but it also admitted hundreds of COVID-19 positive patients in need of care. Accomplishing this level of technology implementation under enormous pressure and anxiety is a true testament to our IT team under Henry’s leadership.

Sadly, Henry Hill passed away of COVID-19 in April. Henry and the impact he had on Americare's team and patients will always be remembered and cherished.