Residential Care Services Director retires after making a difference for more than 40 years
In the world of long-term care, Feb. 29, 2020 is the equivalent of 9–11 or the assassination of JFK. Everyone in the industry remembers exactly when they learned COVID-19 had claimed its first victims in the United States, residents of Life Care Center of Kirkland.
“We started setting time on Feb. 29,” said Candy Goehring. “That was the day that changed everything. It is a marker in time and we remember where we were when our work changed.”
Goehring, who retired in early February after leading ALTSA’s Residential Care Services for more than five years, would draw upon her decades of experience to lead the division through the most significant public health crisis in a century. The virus immediately thrived in long-term care settings. After COVID-19 entered a facility, it spread rapidly among a population especially susceptible to its most serious effects. To date, the state’s more than 4,000 long-term care facilities have accounted for 5% of total cases, but 50% of deaths. More than 2,300 residents have died over the past year.
“I don’t think anyone could have envisioned the last year that we have had,” said Goehring “I have been a nurse in Washington for 43 years. They say this is a once-in-a-lifetime event, so in my last year as a nurse it is fitting and appropriate that I got to experience a pandemic.”
RCS immediately shifted to a singular focus of combatting the coronavirus. Investigators donned full PPE and put themselves at risk by entering facilities to perform infection control surveys. Fully containing the virus was impossible, even despite strict prohibitions on visitation, but the goal was to ensure that long-term care facilities were doing everything possible to limit its spread. It was an overwhelming task to oversee, but Goehring drew upon lessons learned from a health care career that began after she earned her RN in nursing in 1978.
After a brief stint at a hospital, she joined Visiting Nurse Services of Seattle. She would spend the next 25 years there and, after more than a few frustrating interactions with the state, she decided the best way to improve the system would be to join it.
“I got tired of complaining about state government, so I decided that instead of complaining about the state I would go to work for the state and just fix it,” said Goehring.
Her first job with DSHS was as a Complaint Investigator with Residential Care Services. She then moved to ALTSA’s Home and Community Services, where she managed its Nursing Services program. After a two-year return to the private sector, Goehring came back to DSHS to establish and head the Behavioral Health Administration’s Office of Service Integration. She was then named director of Residential Care Services in 2015. Throughout her career, no matter what position she held, her goal was always the same: help one person figure out one thing at a time to make their life better. That’s her definition of a good day.
“I feel really satisfied with the work that I’ve done. I feel confident that I’ve done the best work that I can and I’m really excited about retiring as well,” said Goehring. “I’ve got children, grandchildren. I have a lot of things that I like to do that have been on the backburner for a while. I’m looking forward to doing those.”
She plans to travel, but unfortunately the beginning of her retirement coincides with ongoing pandemic. For now, Goehring will focus on gardening, walking, reading, needlework and maybe dusting off her guitar and learning to play again.