VA Fisher Houses open doors to healthcare workers in COVID-19 push

Story by David Nye Photos by Craig Orsini

In the early days of a global pandemic, many Fisher Houses that serve the Veterans Affairs healthcare systems were closed to guests as a safety precaution. Fifteen of these 44 houses pivoted to support the frontline healthcare professionals that were risking their own well-being to save others. Most Fisher Houses returned to their role of supporting veterans and their families by July.

The conversion of these empty houses to support frontline healthcare professionals helped ensure that healthy staff members could make the most of their limited rest time and keep their own families safe.

“Fisher House provides me with a safe, comfortable room to rest between night shifts, so I do not have to drive back and forth from New Hampshire,” Bethany McEleney, a physical therapist at the VA Boston Healthcare System who worked 12-hour shifts in the intensive care unit, said at the time. “This place of respite supports the whole ICU team because I arrive rested every day.”

Ed Roberts stayed at the VA Boston Fisher House to prevent carrying COVID-19 to his immunocompromised family in case he accidentally contracted it while serving veterans.

For other healthcare professionals, staying at Fisher House was a way to ensure that they could continue working to save veteran lives even if they had vulnerable family members in their own homes.

Allison Conlon, a registered nurse in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at VA Boston HCS, has a 2-year-old with special medical needs at home.

“I feel so grateful and so fortunate to have a room here. This has been one of the most difficult experiences, but living here at Fisher House and working with such supportive [medical intensive care unit] nurses has made it that much easier.”

Fisher Houses are gifted from Fisher House Foundation to the VA. Typically, their use is restricted to supporting military

and veteran families while a loved one is undergoing care at a medical facility. When the VA proposed the transition of Fisher Houses to support healthcare professionals, Fisher House Foundation encouraged the exceptions as the healthcare systems rapidly adapted to deal with COVID-19.

Bethany McEleney, a physical therapist, volunteered to serve as a nurse during the pandemic. She stayed at the VA Boston Fisher House so that she could work long shifts and still get rest.

“Since my great uncle, Zachary, and his wife, Elizabeth, started the first Fisher House, it has always been about supporting those who serve,” said Ken Fisher, chairman and CEO of Fisher House Foundation. “More than 30 years later, that has not changed, but the needs of veterans and service members have temporarily shifted in this crisis. Fisher House Foundation is proud to work with our partners at the VA to serve those healthcare professionals who are serving our veterans every day.”

“The transition of Fisher Houses for housing to support our healthcare workers allows VA to execute all aspects of our mission, including VA’s fourth of supporting the national COVID-19 response,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.

“VA continues to provide Fisher House programming for veterans and their families while supporting the needs of our staff.”

Fisher House managers had to balance the long-term needs of the houses against the immediate needs of the medical systems they support when adapting to this new calling.

House Manager Erik Zielinski of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System described in a blog post how "during a four-day period, five Fisher House staff members, three volunteers and one housekeeper worked together as a team to transition the house to accommodate this new mission.”

Holly Wright, manager of the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital Fisher House, explained how her team ensured that safe social distancing could be maintained in the house.

The VA Boston Fisher House hosted healthy staff with the VA Boston Healthcare System while the medical center was closed to visitors to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Allison Conlon, a registered nurse, poses before a shift.

“We had amazing support from our community as we made this conversion, and we look forward to their support when we’re able to welcome veterans and their families once again,” Wright said in the spring. “We took proactive steps to make the conversion back as easy as possible, like storing away decorations and fabrics that would be hard to sanitize, but we will still need masks, hand sanitizer, and other supplies to help maintain a safe environment for our families.”

House managers also had to ensure that their house could be quickly transitioned back to hosting military and veteran families.

“By re-activating the Fisher House with social distance guidelines and creating self-service stations and virtual communications, we strive to support our front-line staff as they do this life-saving work and give them and their loved ones a fighting chance to stay safe,” said VA Boston Healthcare Fisher House Manager Elizabeth St. Pierre.

When Fisher Houses that were selected to house healthy staff returned to their core mission of housing military and veteran family members, the transition back to housing families was done slowly and deliberately to ensure that no coronavirus was present.

At right, from top to bottom: Ed Roberts stayed at the VA Boston Fisher House to prevent carrying COVID-19 to his immunocompromised family in case he accidentally contracted it while serving veterans. Bethany McEleney, a physical therapist, volunteered to serve as a nurse during the pandemic. She stayed at the VA Boston Fisher House so that she could work long shifts and still get rest.