Coronavirus pandemic: Hotel rooms, RVs provided to medical workers in effort to keep their family members safe
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- While health care workers battle the novel coronavirus on the front lines of the pandemic, they are being provided with a variety of temporary housing options -- including hotel rooms and RVs -- in an effort to keep their loved ones safe.
"It's just really calming, I think, for the family to know we're in a safe place," said Dr. Michael Kim, referring to the hotel he's occupying while treating patients at USC hospitals.
Keck Medicine of USC set up the hotel rooms after hearing concerns expressed by the academic medical center's health-care workers.
"It was so nice to be able to know that there's a room that's clean," Kim said, "a place for us to shower, rest and also just really keep our family safe, too, just in case that there was a surge or if we were in contact with a COVID-positive patient -- just to be able to have a safe place for us, away from our families."
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The Facebook group "RVs 4 MDs" matches health-care workers who are treating COVID-19 patients with donated RVs across the country for them to use.
Nurce practitioner Chris Negrete of Ventura County has his RV parked in his driveway.
"I'm closer to home rather than being so far away, where I can't have any contact with them," Negrete said, "and it's just a little more personal. And everything is so enclosed -- so my own bathroom, my own shower -- things just as a logistical thing make it easier for me to keep myself separate from my family."
In the Inland Empire, Mike Sevoian has a small RV business.He's providing his four vehicles through the "RVs 4 MDs" group.
"I was reading up a lot of these health-care workers -- that they were really scared and they didn't want to take a chance with their families and getting their kids sick," Sevoian said. "They have elderly parents or whatnot, so I have to do this. It was something in my heart that I needed to do."
Along with the housing provided to USC doctors and nurses working with COVID-19 patients, mental-health services are also being offered to help them deal with the stress of the work they're doing.
