COVID-19 Update 3.26.21
3/26/2021
COVID-19 Update
Dear Patients, Residents, Family and Staff;
We couldn’t be happier to have seen many of our Residents reconnecting under one roof with family and friends; this re-opening and Resident outings opportunity could not have come soon enough. Please remember to schedule your visits or Resident outings at least a day in advance to ensure we can accommodate your scheduled visit as best as possible or have your Resident/Love One ready for an outing.
Visitors can contact Winnie at 913-401-3819 or WBanda@thehealthcareresort.com to schedule a visit with a Long-Term Care Resident and contact Cena at 913-229-2859 or azmitchell@ensignservices.net to schedule a visit with an Assisted Living Resident. Visits will be limited to 1 time per day for 15 minutes at a time upon schedule availability seven days a week from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm. Only scheduled visits will be allowed at this time. For outings, you and the Resident will receive guidelines that you’ll be signing as evidence of receiving and understanding the information provided.
Many of you have asked about compassionate care visits. While end-of-life situations have been used as examples of compassionate care situations, the term “compassionate care situations” does not exclusively refer to end-of-life situations. Compassionate care visits may be performed by a family member, a friend, clergy or lay person offering religious and spiritual support if the Resident meets the following criteria:
- A Resident who was living with their family before recently being admitted to the nursing home, is struggling with the change in environment and lack of physical family support.
- A Resident who is grieving after a friend or a family member recently passed away.
- A Resident who needs cueing and encouragement with eating or drinking, previously provided by family and/or caregiver(s), is experiencing weight loss or dehydration.
- A Resident who used to talk and interact with others, is experiencing emotional distress, seldom speaking, or crying more frequently (when the Resident had rarely cried in the past).
If you feel that a Resident meet’s this criteria, please ask to communicate with the Director of Nursing or the ADON/Infection Control Preventionist. At all times, with any type of visit to include compassionate care visits, they should be conducted using social distancing. However, if during a compassionate care visit a visitor and facility identify a way to allow for personal contact, it should only be done following all appropriate infection prevention guidelines and for a limited amount of time. As a reminder regarding visitations, visitors should not bring food or drink to share during the visitation as masks should be worn at all times from nose to chin. The facility also asks you to please remember when doing window visitations, that you keep three feet away from the window and encourage the Resident to do the same (for a total of a minimum of 6 feet apart).
The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services has requested that we reach out to Residents and Responsible Parties to conduct a Resident Visitation Template. We are aware that we’ve been collaborating on Resident Visitations with many of you since the pandemic begun by providing virtual visitations, window visitations, porch visitations, compassionate care visitations, and indoor visitations. However, we are attempting to formalize the Residents’ needs and wishes on a platform that will allow the facility to update the Residents’ plan of care. A facility representative will be collaborating with Responsible Parties, if they haven’t already, regarding the Resident’s preferences.
As weather is becoming nicer and more conducive, the facility is looking for ways to ensure it meets criteria to provide outdoor visitation while ensuring that all KDADS, CMS, CDC, and Department of Health guidelines are followed. The facility has purchased in preparation for outdoor visitation, tables, chairs, tents, surveillance system, sanitation station, etc. to meet these guidelines. We’ve also hired a contractor to transform a porch in the facility to allow more private visitation that will also allow for weather control. We will certainly notify you once we have a process for utilizing the porch so that you can enjoy an outdoor visitation with a more weather-controlled environment. Guidelines, practices, tools and supplies are only as good and effective as visitors and Residents who are willing to abide by them; we request that you do your very best to ensure the safest visitation possible for the sake of yourself, your loved one, and for the rest of the facility as exposure to the virus has the potential to spread through the entire building and expose many lives to having their health compromised and even death.
As always, our top priority is keeping our Residents and Staff as safe as possible and we appreciate your compliance and discipline with all visitations and outings practices. Thank you again for your continued confidence to care for your loved one and for supporting us in our efforts during this pandemic.
At your service,
The Leadership Team at Shawnee PARC
