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Watermark family, you showed up in a big way for our Watermark Urgent Care clinics last week! Thank you for your generous contributions throughout the past several days. As local families face health fears and have been confined at home much longer than anticipated, your donations have provided useful resources, a little fun, and hope. People have left with tears in their eyes due to your generosity and the ways you’ve resourced our team.
Update from the Watermark Urgent Care Clinics
Last week our clinics in Dallas and Plano met this crisis head-on. Teams adjusted their operations to immediately fast-track any “sick visit” patients by first meeting with them outdoors, mitigating exposure to staff, volunteers, or other patients. We saw 167 patients last week, the majority of whom had upper respiratory symptoms. As always, their patient population is largely made up of people from Dallas’ most vulnerable communities, such as recent refugees and other immigrants, children from low-income families, and anyone without health insurance.
Watermark Urgent Care leadership is constantly evaluating the ability to stay open during this time. Their decisions will be based on the value to the community as well as their staffing levels. By staying open as long as possible, they get to remain true to their mission by both sharing the gospel with many scared and unsure people, and by helping alleviate the burden on our city’s Emergency Rooms.
This week 167 patients received the care they needed while staying out of the ER because our clinics were open. Additionally, 167 patients (and their families) were comforted with the love of Christ this week because our clinics were open.
Our staff and volunteers are excited to be on-site and have seen God work in numerous ways. They report that He has provided just what they needed, when they needed it. They had many fruitful conversations with patients and are finding patients are more open than ever to conversations about the gospel. As the situation progresses, our Watermark Urgent Care team will continue to be wise and adjust operations as needed, while still remaining true to their mission. This includes innovating ways to diminish face-to-face exposure – through phone triage systems, telemedicine, outdoor visits, or other means.
You can stay up to date on what is happening at our clinics by following their Facebook or Instagram pages. Their website is also useful for major updates.
Meanwhile, you can also help. Below are a handful of ways the Watermark family can serve our clinics’ staff and volunteers, as well as others you know “on the front lines” of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Share Your Masks with Watermark Urgent Care
One of the most pressing needs at our clinic is N95 Respirator masks. Due to the general public buying many of these masks, there is a shortage for those who need them most. In the event of the virus becoming widespread, healthcare professionals will face extreme risk. Watermark Urgent Care will also be at risk of closing its doors entirely, if our clinics are not able to adequately protect staff and volunteers with these masks.
Likewise, traditional surgical masks are highly needed as well. If you have any unopened boxes of N95 Respirators or surgical masks, please consider donating them to Watermark Urgent Care this week. You can deliver them to Watermark in blue bins in the West Tower lobby. If our clinics receive more masks than they need, they will share them with area ICUs and ERs.
Serve Health Care Professionals
Healthcare professionals – doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants, and many others – have spent numerous hours caring for the sick in their jobs. But then some of these professionals have spent their off hours serving in similar ways at our clinics!
Perhaps someone in your community group or a friend already serves with Watermark Urgent Care (staff or volunteer). You also likely know neighbors, friends, or family involved in healthcare professions. These people are serving our community in a special way during this time.
So please consider how you might help clinic volunteers and/or healthcare professionals in ways that allow them to work more or take additional rest. Here are a few ideas:
- Bring a meal to their house or to our clinics (New opportunities for meals or snacks at our clinics can be found at these links: Skillman Clinic and Plano Clinic)
- Take care of yardwork or other home needs
- Offer to babysit – especially if you know their children will be home unexpectedly due to school closures
- Help with education of kids
- Send notes of encouragement
- Discover other specific needs and meet them creatively!
We would love to provide clinic volunteers and staff some tangible encouragement, as well. An Amazon wish list has been set up, or you can bring the following items to the Watermark Dallas West Tower reception area:
- Instant coffee
- Protein bars
- $5-$10 Starbucks gift card
- Nice pens
- Notes of encouragement, thanking them for what they are doing
Any or all of these are useful to us. Please bring them to the blue bins in the lobby of the West Tower at Watermark Dallas between 9AM and 2PM.
Continue Donating Items to Help Patients
Many of our patients cannot afford or access basic necessities. You can continue to help by providing these medical essentials, either through the Amazon wish list or donating at Watermark:
- New digital, oral thermometers
- Small, unopened packs of tissues
- Small, unopened bottles of hand sanitizer
All items will be collected in blue bins in the lobby of the West Tower at Watermark Dallas. Please bring items between 9AM and 2PM.
Help Us Keep Reaching the Most Vulnerable
We still want to be thoughtful not to overload the health system unnecessarily, whether that is at Watermark Urgent Care, your doctor’s office, or local hospitals. If you are feeling sick, the Watermark Health team suggests using a questionnaire like the one from our friends at Medical City before assuming it might be COVID-19. Watermark Urgent Care has also provided some helpful resources to help discern if an office visit or staying at home will be your best next step.
Check out last week's update from the clinic. If you want to stay in the loop and receive medical information regarding COVID-19, you can find our email sign-up on Watermark Urgent Care’s home page or follow Watermark Health on social media.