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TheSouthShoreMagazine.com 9 appropriate personal protective equipment. Priority number two was educating the patients that they needed to continue their care plans, accepting our clinicians into their homes," McInnes continues. "We had an advantage in that we already had telehealth as part of our home care platform for over eleven years. Our patients are complex and very ill so having that infrastructure already in place during the spring of 2020 was a game changer, especially for our physician partners scrambling to stay in touch with their patients,"says McInnes. In due course, physician practices were building telehealth programs overnight and immediately relied on NVNA and Hospice nurses to be in the room. "Sometimes I think our greatest tool in the spring of 2020 was that we had a clinical team well versed in this new technology," notes McInnes. NVNA and Hospice saw its census rebound to 400 in early May as the clinical team worked to allay patient concerns about the virus and show that anyone on the team entering their home was wearing the CDC recommended gear. The clinical team became adept at alleviating fears and coordinating the next appointment so that a patient's recovery remained on track. "Often those families are in other parts of the country relying on us to see and care for their elderly loved ones," McInnes says as she jumps out of her car and enters her offices. "Patients were terrified. Our older patients knew they needed our care, but so many messages were coming at them. It necessitated us de-escalating these fears. Serious illnesses continued and these patients needed care." "This morning is typical for my schedule these days," remarks McInnes. A nurse by training, McInnes assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer in 2016 after serving in numerous leadership roles within the organization. Back-to-back meetings at the hospice residence kick off a busy day which ends with a photo opportunity with a patient's family that donated to the 100th anniversary Grace Campaign. McInnes offers her thoughts on the state of home care. "I keep reiterating that the home care revolution is here. It started unfolding in late 2019, then the pandemic launched home care into the center of national and local health care conversations." McInnes is clear that the revolution is about necessary change: innovatively recruiting nursing staff, adjusting reimbursement rates and guaranteeing that everyone can receive timely, quality care at home, not in hospitals, whenever possible. As the leader of the region's largest independent home care agency, McInnes is prepared to help propel that revolution. How did the home care revolution ignite? McInnes suggests that a national health crisis like the pandemic spotlights the health system's strengths, but it also sheds light on the fractured health care system. When Massachusetts declared a state of emergency in early March 2020, NVNA and Hospice saw its daily census tumble from 680 to 240 patients in two weeks. "My leadership team was incredible and we knew immediately that priority one had to be protecting my clinical team with the