Hospital life
Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo. Kyle Hankins/Lariat
While COVID-19 has shut down a lot of jobs for people the same can’t be said for hospital workers. Medical workers have been part of the many essential people key to maintaining America’s health during the pandemic.
Josh Babasa is a computer information systems major at Saddleback College who currently works at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo. Babasa has been working there for a little over 1 year.
“It has been an interesting year being part of the hospital and I didn’t expect to be hit with Covid, the pandemic but you know it’s been a great year,” Babasa says.
Since the start of the pandemic Babasa’s workload has increased mostly in the number of hours and if he was ever asked to help if they are short staffed Josh would get the call if necessary.
Babasa is a patient access representative or registration at the hospital. His job is to check patients in and make sure they are in the system and will also work on patients in their bay if any come by. At the beginning of the pandemic the process was a little confusing but now it has been easier to minimize contact while still helping.
“In the beginning it was a little unorganized, we were still trying to figure out what to do but we ended up just wearing a facemask to prevent the spread a little more,” Babasa says. “We would wear face shields to patients who were coughing, who had a fever and showed signs of the flu. Now we just call the patient’s phone number to get them registered and checked in to minimize our contact with patients who are sick that show signs of flu and COVID.”
The hospitals are well taken with everyone being asked to wear their mask, face shields and also will keep their distance to help them but also the patient.
“We basically keep our hands clean with washing our hands with water and soap, hand sanitizers and just constantly being aware of what we do and being aware of which patients are showing signs of symptoms,” Babasa says.
The hospital is committed to giving everyone the same amount of treatment and care whether or not they have covid.
“Both patients, with or without signs of flu or COVID, we give them the same amount of treatment we don’t discriminate,” Babasa says. “The only difference is, that patients without the signs of flu, we can interact with them more. We can go in their rooms properly then with patients with signs of flu and COVID.”
If you are showing any signs of the flu, trouble with breathing, inability to stay awake or persistent pain or pressure in your chest please seek medical care. You can call the Mission Hospital at (949) 364-1400 or visit their website.
You must be logged in to post a comment.