COVID-19 Family Update- 5/6/20
Dear Families,
As always, our team and I hope this email finds you safe and healthy. As some states begin to ease restrictions on businesses and the general public, please note that our center will NOT be included in any category. The visitor restriction placed on us by the state in early March is still in effect for the foreseeable future; we will advise you when this changes. We continue to offer our weekly conference call for families and FaceTime calls, Zoom meetings, and widow visits for you and your loved ones.
From the beginning of this crisis, we have implemented extensive infection control measures to protect residents. I have listed those in many past emails, our weekly “Town Hall” conference calls, and this information remains on our website. As always, if you would like any details on them, please let me know.
In Connecticut, patients and staff have tested positive in more than 2/3 of the nursing homes in the state. Sadly, we also have had patients test positive for COVID-19. As you know, this has been devasting to our staff. We are doing all we can to treat them and our thoughts are with those patients afflicted with this virus and their loved ones. We will discuss this in more detail in our weekly call.
We also continue to do all we can to protect our other residents and remain committed to ensuring the personal protective equipment (PPE) our staff needs and are in compliance with CDC and state guidelines regarding the appropriate use of PPE. We continue to follow every lead to secure PPE from existing and new vendors and request equipment from the state. We are satisfied with our supply but are always monitoring it and working to build it up for the long road ahead.
We are in touch daily with the Department of Public Health and our local Health Department. The state DPH has visited our center and found us to be in compliance with 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.
We may be turning the corner on our center’s battle with COVID-19. As of today, we have seen 14 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 “graduation” or recovery ceremonies, to celebrate their success. We feel this would be helpful to everyone!
I remain incredibly grateful for our 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 and support them as they battle this disease.
We are fortunate to have such dedicated staff providing the highest quality of care to their patients, even in the most challenging times. We have increased compensation to the staff at Laurel Ridge and continue to advertise and recruit for additional per diem staff to supplement our teams. We support our talented staff whose commitment to caring for our residents throughout this health crisis inspires us every day.
We have heard from many of you about how you can recognize our staff – like what is happening all around our state with other “Health Care Heroes.” We thank you for the many pizzas, sandwiches, and other goodies that you have provided to the staff.
In closing, I shared with you an Op-Ed that ran on Sunday (May 3) in the Hartford Courant from Larry Santilli, the president of Athena Health Care Systems, and Eleanor Messenger, a resident and the president of MeadowBrook of Granby’s Resident Council. We also shared this on our Facebook page to remind the public of the courage and sacrifice our team makes, day in and day out.
As a reminder. our next “Town Hall” meeting is scheduled for Thursday 5/7/20 at 3:00pm and we will discuss more detailed information on center updates. Resident-specific questions cannot be answered during these calls. Please call us directly with questions on your loved one. We encourage any residents and family members to contact Laurel Ridge 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.
As in the past, please email us your questions in advance so that we can address similar questions at one time.
Thank you and please stay safe and healthy!
Sobha Lamontagne
Administrator