Update from Administrator – June 1, 2020
As always, our team and I hope this finds you safe and healthy. Another “thank you” for all the staff’s hard work, dedication, and compassion for all of our residents here. We remain incredibly grateful for our entire dedicated team and ask you to join me in ensuring that they are included as “Health Care Heroes” battling COVID-19. They are doing everything they possibly can to care for those suffering while also implementing preventive measures to minimize the spread of the disease. Everyone is working hard, and their efforts do not go unnoticed.
We continue to offer our weekly conference call for families and FaceTime calls, and Skype sessions for you and your loved ones. Please continue to reach out to our recreation team to schedule “visits”. The state was kind enough to supply us with an additional iPad to conduct FaceTime visits. In addition to virtual visits, we are beginning to offer perimeter visits for our residents and their families. This will be discussed on your weekly call, but this essentially gives residents the opportunity to visit with their loved ones in person, through a window or outdoor social distancing. These visits will require appropriate PPE (masks) and a distance of 6 feet between residents and visitors. The specific guidelines and details regarding perimeter visits can be found on our website and Facebook page.
Over the last week we have continued to appropriately cohort our residents according to the CDC guidance.
As many of you are aware, we were able to get our testing date from DPH for both residents and staff. We tested 42 residents, 41 were negative and 1 positive.
As you know from our communications, managing this virus has been devastating to our staff but we are doing all we can to treat them. We currently have 10 positive residents in house but will discuss our numbers in more detail during our weekly call.
Last week, the state DPH and members of the National Guard visited our center and found us to be in compliance for PPE, staffing and infection control and prevention issues. We continue to follow all CDC and state guidelines and receive regular updates on new guidelines that are offered.
Good news… As of today, we have seen 26 of our residents convert to negative and are now symptom-free of COVID-19. We are very excited for these residents, their families, and our staff. We anticipate this number to continue to rise and we will begin holding recognition ceremonies to celebrate their success.
We have begun testing staff this week which will be done in waves. We will keep everyone posted on outcome.
Weekly Call
As a reminder, our next “Town Hall” meeting is scheduled for this Thursday and we will discuss more detailed information during this time. We encourage any residents and family members to contact me with any questions you have about the care we are offering. Our commitment is to be as transparent as possible and work to address any issues that arise. This is an incredibly challenging time and we will continue to do all we can to get through this, together. A reminder that resident-specific questions cannot be answered during these calls or on our Facebook page so please reach out to us directly if needed.
Thank you and please stay safe and healthy! Although the weather outside is becoming warmer and sunnier each day, it is important to remember that it is still necessary to be cautious and aware that the risks of COVID-19 are still present.
Regards,
Nickeisha Bewry-Clarke, MS., LNHA, Administrator