Working the COVID-19 Front Lines
Don Caniff, one of FZ’s lead technicians, has been working at Spectrum Health for years, supplying support on the hospital’s infrastructure and connectivity. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Don and the FZ team have continued their front line, essential work in ensuring that the hospital is cable of responding and treating the virus by expanding their connection capabilities.
Don’s daughter, Molly, is an emergency department nurse at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital. The two have found themselves working side by side during this difficult time.
“I find myself going back and checking on her at least once or twice a day while I’m there,” Don told News 8 during a video interview beside his daughter.
“It’s nice to see a familiar face and see and check on him and see how he’s holding up and he checks on me to see how I’m holding up,” Molly added.
Since Michigan’s stay-home order went into effect last month, our Fzers have worked over 12,000 hours related to essential contracts. Those who are on the COVID-19 front lines have continued their essential work.
“We’ve been running fiber optics for the COVID tents. We’ve been putting up wireless access points, trying to put Ascom bases up for the nurses and doctors to keep the flow going. The infrastructure for us has been very busy,” Don explained.
“If you think about what’s happened in the last several weeks, hospitals have had to pivot their business model quite a bit and they’re taking spaces and utilizing them in ways maybe they weren’t originally designed for,” Feyen Zylstra Director of Sales and Operations Derek Hunderman told News 8. “So, it can be a temporary tent to stage testing or intake, it could be moving nursing stations around and any time they make those changes, there’s some infrastructure behind the scenes.”
Molly Caniff believes her dad’s role is just as important as hers at the hospital. “If they don’t have the title of a doctor or nurse, that doesn’t mean they’re not on the front lines. At the end of the day, our goal is the same. It’s to take care of our community. It’s to take care of patients and each other,” she said. “We can’t do our job without everybody else, IT environmental services, registration, security officers and I think a lot of times that gets forgotten.”
At FZ, we exist to have a positive impact on the lives of people – our customers, employees, and community. We see our COVID-19 front line work at this time, whether it be in hospitals, food processing facilities, or on a project like the Grand Rapids Biodigester, as part of that mission to have a positive impact. As electricians, technicians, and engineers, it’s our job to keep pressing forward in order to keep the communities where we live and work safe.
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