Community Update May 29, 2020

LETTER FROM JESSICA HALL

This week, Governor DeWine announced a plan to test staff and residents in all Ohio nursing homes for COVID-19. The testing began this week in the Columbus area and is focused on nursing homes with confirmed or assumed positive cases of the novel coronavirus.

Testing will not occur in assisted living or independent living communities at this time.

We wanted to provide you with some background on why this is being done.

• The Ohio Department of Health wants to help nursing homes identify and isolate active COVID-19 infections, and to reduce further spread of the virus.

• All staff will be tested, along with residents who could have been exposed to COVID-19.

• Dr. Amy Acton, Ohio’s Medical Director, emphasized that the decision to test in every nursing home is an effort to protect Ohio’s vulnerable older adults.

• It is not a response to any quality care or infection control problems.

• Testing over 900 nursing homes will take time, and we do not know when our community will be scheduled for testing.

• If we are contacted in advance, we will notify residents, staff and responsible parties of testing details.

Gov. DeWine also announced that as of June 8th, outdoor visitation will be permitted for assisted living communities only. We are glad to see this development for assisted living residents and their families, and hope this is a stepping stone to allowing outdoor visitation for long-term care and rehab residents too.  We will share more detailed information about visitation as soon as we know more from the Ohio Department of Health.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers.  They continue to be appreciated.

Jessica Hall, Executive Director