Administrator Message: 3/17/21

March 17, 2021

Dear Families,

At long last – we have new guidance from the CDC on nursing home visitation! This new guidance reflects updates to address the vaccination of residents and individuals from the community, as well as the decrease in community spread and changes to visitation during an “outbreak.” We continue to take all necessary precautions, including wearing personal protective equipment and conducting regular testing of our staff and residents, to ensure the safety of our residents and staff.

While the CDC released their new guidance on March 10^th, we reviewed their materials, along with guidance that followed the next day from our state’s health leaders and our operator, Athena Health Care Systems to update our existing policies and procedures to accommodate the new guidance.

For details on the CDC guidance, please visit their website: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/infection-control-after-vaccination.html.

We want to provide some updates about our visitation policy, based on requirements set by our state’s DPH and the CDC.

Visitation Reminders / UPDATEs

As before, when an outbreak is detected among residents or staff, all visitations must be suspended except for compassionate care visits, until at least one round of facility-wide testing is completed.

Currently, we are offering In-Person, Virtual, Window, and Compassionate visits.

We will continue to contact you each Monday to set up a visit for the week. As always, ANY family members and friends are welcome to reach out to schedule a visit. Please call the recreation department at (860)628-0364 or text or call Barbara at (203)901-6411.

Residents may have up to 2 adult visitors at a time-Children are now welcome to visit as well
Visiting is 30 minutes long.
As you know if you bring food or beverages to the visit your loved one can eat/drink it when they return to their community
When you arrive, please go directly to The Apple Town Villa (large dining room on the ground floor next to the reception area). Recreation staff will continue to take your temperature and complete paperwork. If you have proof of vaccination, please bring it as we will be keeping an updated vaccination record.

All visitors and residents must wear a facemask that fully covers their nose and mouth, and it must remain in place throughout the entire visit; you must perform hand hygiene prior to approaching the visiting area.

Please maintain social distancing during the visit. ** If your loved one is fully vaccinated, you may have close contact with your loved one. Please continue to practice social distancing with our staff and any others you may encounter. This is for indoor and outdoor visitation. To clarify a “fully vaccinated” individual is defined as your loved one is two weeks post receiving BOTH of their vaccination doses.
A staff member will be on hand to supervise visits, answer questions, assist during the visit, and sanitize in-between visits.

Recreation

Small group activities have resumed -one-to-one visits are ongoing.
When there is a COVID-19 positive resident on a unit, floor, or care area, group activities will be paused for residents on the unit, floor, or care area until the unit, floor, or care area has gone 14 days without a new COVID-19 positive resident.
A reminder to everyone that we do have various tablet devices for your loved one to utilize to access games, various communication tools, games, news, and more. We have done some tutoring and training on the tablets so that residents are more comfortable with them.

Dining

Small groups of residents who are fully vaccinated may dine together at a table without social distancing. Tables will be 6 feet apart from one another and dining companions should be consistent across meals and days.

Thank you and, as always, please stay safe and healthy!

Sincerely,

Carol Mortensen

Administrator