COVID-19 Update From Administrator – March 25, 2020
We’re going to bring you up to date and hopefully answer some overall questions you have about Shady Knoll Health Center and more importantly, your loved one. We hope this format works well moving forward.
Activities Recreation– How your loved one is spending their day
- This is a tough one – but overall, we are all adjusting. The visitor restriction placed on our center stipulated that no outside entertainers could perform at our center, as well as the assistance of our volunteers. Additionally, we, just like you, are practicing social distancing, as best as we can. We continue room-to-room visits, manicures, music, juice and snack runs, and providing activities packets. This Thursday, we will have traveling root beer floats. Our Recreation employees take the opportunity to visit with residents for extended periods of time whenever they are in a resident’s room.
- Our alternative visits are up and running. We appreciate your patience as we developed this and continue to work on making it the best possible experience. Please contact Samantha Hurley at recreation@shadyknollhcc.com to schedule your visit.
- With your written permission, we will post more pictures of your loved on our Facebook page for you to see them engaged in activities and sharing moments with our staff. If you do not consent to this, we can send you pictures to your phone/email. Those of you without Facebook, please contact Sam at the above email.
For your loved ones:
- We are taking a full set of resident Vitals each shift along with their O2 saturation level (this is a new CDC recommendation that we have implemented). We are observing also for subtle changes (increased weakness, confusion, agitation).
- Residents with sudden onset of symptoms will be placed on “droplet precautions” until their case can be reviewed.
- We are pulling the privacy curtains that go between the 2 beds in our semi-private rooms.
- Any health care visitor such as hospice nurses, CNA’s will be required to wear a face mask.
- Face masks can be used more than once, based on new CDC guidelines.
Our Employees
An additional measure was added to an existing procedure below to further ensure for everyone’s health.
At the start of each employee’s shift, they are required to
- Sign in
- Get their temperature taken.
- Have their Oxygen saturation taken (this is a new recommendation from CDC that we have implemented)
- Answer a series of questions on their health, their recent travel and if they have been in contact with someone known to have COVID-19
Our employees have been great. We hope you agree with us. They are resilient and compassionate individuals who come in everyday ready to be there for your loved one!
Moving Forward
- What else would you like to see in future emails each week?
- What other topics do you want to hear about on our “Town Hall” calls?
As I have said before, I would like to personally thank you for your patience during this very unusual time we are all facing. This is an unprecedented time for all of us and we appreciate the support and kind words of encouragement we have received. We continue to monitor and look to our state and federal governing bodies on updates for Covid-19. We also appreciate the dedication from our employees under these stressful and uncertain times.
Deborah Torrey, Administrator