Marshfield Clinic asks public to help employees find child care as schools close

As the COVID-19 pandemic closes schools and other childcare facilities, Marshfield Clinic is asking the public for help in finding childcare for doctors, nurses and other patient-seeing employees.

If you are able to assist with childcare during this time, you are asked to email childcare@marshfieldclinic.org.

You are asked to include the following:

• Name

• Age

• City of residence

• Days and time of availability

• What age groups are you willing to provide care for (infants, toddlers, teens)

• Any special qualifications (e.g. CPR, formal training, etc.)

• Do you have transportation and how far are you willing to travel to provide child care

• Anything else you think may be relevant.

Dr. Steven Kulick, chief experience officer at Marshfield Clinic, says they need solutions for the time being so clinic employees can continue to come to work.

"We want to be very proactive, we're all hoping for the best but anticipating the worst. With the schools closed, it's very important that our providers are here at work where we need them," said Dr. Kulick.

It's a problem north central health care is also dealing with. CEO Michael Loy said, "Next to sustained community spread and keeping staff healthy during the pandemic, this is one of the biggest obstacles we will need to navigate. Healthcare is already dealing with an unprecedented labor shortage."

With a case reported Sunday in Wood County, clinic employees could be on the front lines of fighting coronavirus. They are following CDC guidelines for who they will test, and sending tests to other labs that process them.

"We don't have the capability to test every person who's worried that they may have it, in general what we're doing is we're asking about travel, we're asking about potential contacts with people who may have covid-19," he said.

Dr. Kulick says people should be concerned, but should not panic.

"We have heard that there are a lot of rumors circulating in the community, so we feel it's very, very important to be a source of credible, factual information," he said.