Additional resident testing was completed today and 7 additional cases were discovered. That brings our total to 12 in-house cases of Covid. We are currently monitoring all residents and have protocols in place to prevent spread, including a separated wing and adequate PPE. Families, doctors, and county/state officials have been notified.
During resident testing, we have discovered (5) COVID positive residents. Those residents are on isolation precautions in their own private rooms and their conditions are being monitored closely. We have notified public and state health departments and will update the community when we have more information concerning this outbreak. Dining
and activities will be discontinued for a minimum of 14 days and in-person visitation will resume Monday the 27th at the earliest (depending on next two resident testing cycles).
We have had one positive staff member in the last cycle of testing. This does not prevent us from having visitors and we will reopen for in-person visitation later this week if all residents test negative. We plan on testing residents today.
This message is to update that we have had a 3rd staff member who is positive for COVID resulting in facility now in lock down at a minimum through Sept 5th. No visitations continue, all residents with outside appointments will have them canceled till further notice. There is 1 resident with symptoms at this time and all test results on other residents have retuned negative. All direct care staff will now increase PPE to N95 masks with face shields and new disposable gown worn for each resident contact. Testing of staff will continue twice weekly and for a minimum of two weeks residents will also be tested twice weekly. We appreciate your patience during this quarantine we understand the impact this has for residents, families and staff.
We had one staff member that was positive in our last testing cycle and, in the abundance of caution, we have tested all of our residents and have had no positive results. The positive staff member is quarantined at home for 14 days and has had no known exposure to any of our residents. We will test our residents again on Monday and, if no positive cases arise, we will open up our dining rooms for activities and meals.
Resumption of Indoor Visitation: Families and friends of residents can resume indoor visitation starting again on Monday, April 12th. Due to recent staff exposure to COVID, we were unable to allow visitors, per health department, for 28 days, but beginning on Monday, we will open our doors again to socially distanced visitation in our Great Room and TV room. We are limited to these rooms and no visitations in resident rooms will be allowed at this time unless it is a compassionate care visit. We will be providing visitor log with screening on recent exposure, vaccination status, and any symptoms before visitation. PPE will be provided and hand hygiene required. Residents who have not received the vaccine or are under 14 day quarantine precautions, will not be able to have indoor visitors at this time, unless it’s related to compassionate care. Outdoor visits are still available for unvaccinated residents. Due to limited space, we are asking that ONLY 2 PEOPLE FROM SAME HOUSEHOLD per indoor visit. Hugging is allowed, but discouraged, as it is recommended to keep socially distanced during the visit. Compassionate care visits still are able to occur at any time regardless of COVID activity in the building and resident vaccination status. The ESSENTIAL SUPPORT PERSON is no longer active now that residents are allowed indoor visits. If the facility enters “outbreak status” again, we will have to limit indoor visitation until the county deems it safe or after 28 days. Visitors of Woodland Care Center residents will be able to schedule times between 8am-8pm, this visits are limited to under an hour to allow all residents and families the opportunity to see their loved ones during hours of operation. More policy revisions and updates will occur, so please contact our facility at 360-225-9443 and ask for management for further clarification and visit our website where we update our status of infections and/or visitation restrictions. In the next couple of days we will begin taking appointments over the phone for Monday’s reopening. Stay tuned and thanks for your patience!
Washington State Residential Care Services received CDC Updated Healthcare Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations in Response to COVID-19 Vaccination as well as CMS Updated Nursing Home Guidance with Revised Visitation Recommendations. We understand that residents and their families are all looking forward to a time when they can be together again and this will move us in that direction.
Washington State is in the process of updating the Safe Start for LTC Recommendations and Requirements in accordance with this guidance and the Governor will be issuing a proclamation shortly. We do not anticipate this will be a long process. In the interim, it is important that we continue to follow the current Safe Start Plan. Currently there is no change in visitation status. We will communicate with you again as soon as we receive additional guidance.
Last week it was discovered in our routine testing that one staff member
had tested positive for COVID-19. This staff member was tested again
with a lab PCR test that confirmed they had been positive. This person
is quarantined and all local and state agencies have been notified. We
have tested all residents and staff and there have been no positive
cases to report aside from this on isolated individual. We will continue
to test twice weekly (staff and residents) for the next several weeks
and report our findings.
We continue to test twice weekly based on number of cases in the community. Our assisted living residents and staff have received the second doses of the vaccine. We’ve had no community acquired cases of COVID in the last testing cycle. We have quarantined one staff member with symptoms that had exposure outside of work. We will continue to monitor staff and continue testing and report any changes.
All testing for Covid on 1/18/21 was negative. Our nursing home residents and staff received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine and the staff and residents in our assisted living received their first dose.