SATURDAY! MRS. K AND THE WEEK IN REVIEW.
Well, this week was truly something different. I apologize for the lack of communication but we have been hustling.
Day 10 of the “shelter in home”, “shelter in place”, or stay the f%@* home!
Last night around 6;00pm, we got a call on the 1-883-GO4ATCS hotline. The transcribed voicemail read urgent need to talk to you. This was from a city official in the health department. I called her back immediately.
Mrs. K and I discussed briefly the situation in New York. It’s not good.
She then asked if our service could provide her with security for hospitals in New York.
“Security?, I asked. Oh, you think the athletic trainers are actually personal trainers? Like, they work out a lot?”
When you have worked with Ellis for as long as I have become a willing champion of all that athletic trainers are. In particular, when these following scenarios arise I call Ellis and vent.
Its “Athletic Trainer”
They are not personal trainers
They are medical professionals
However, there is growing frustration over the last two weeks at the lack of information in government health departments about all that you can do. And I am not even an athletic trainer.
Back to Mrs. K.
“Do you know what an athletic trainer does? What they can do?”
“No”
“How old are you Mrs. K? (we were tight by then) Do you know who Joe Theisman is? Do you remember his injury?”
“Redskins QB who broke his leg” (obviously she is a NY Giants fan and I remind her about how our beloved Eagles have had their way with her squad over last couple fo years)
“Well, when everyone looked away and couldn’t get near the injury, the athletic trainers were dealing with it all. Patient, injury, and response”
“They are sports medicine professionals who can do just about anything. Oh, and they thrive in environments filled with chaos and crisis”
She is going to get back to me on Monday after speaking with her supervisor.
The call didn’t end exactly as I wanted however, one more person in healthcare now understands what an athletic trainer does.
What ELSE happened this past week:
We had companies like Quaker Oats, Frito-Lay, and Wakefern post jobs for athletic trainers to help screen and keep their workforce healthy. The industrial setting is going to important in the next few weeks and we are getting more and more requests.
We have been working with the national governing body of Urgent Cares about finding position in the 76,000 urgent cares around the country. They are being stressed just as much as hospitals.
We have been on phone calls with the state leadership from Illinois, Nebraska, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, New York, Maine, Maryland, Florida on how to amplify our message and utilize their local networks.
We continue to educate and provide resources for state and local health departments around the country.
Nighttime Urgent Care shifts start this week in Md. All hospital systems and organizations have different
onboarding and staffing needs so we worked though it all and MD athletic trainers will be helping the company deal with their stressed workforce.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: These hospitals and urgent cares have a much different hiring strategy and mandates than youth sports organizations. Make sure your documents and RESUME are upload into your profile.
We posted almost $75,000 in jobs in 5 states.
3 Step Sports (one of the largest youth sports company in the country signed a deal with Go4Ellis to provide athletic training services to their events and practices. This will create over 2500 jobs in 15 states once we turn the country back on.
952 athletic trainers have joined the platform since our NATA announcement. THANK YOU!
And our FaceBook post, 5 Reasons ATs are Made For This Moment hit 512 shares. You can see it here: bit.ly/FB-AT-5reasons
We will continue to work with our current event operators and athletic trainers to weather this storm together.
Stay safe,
-Andy