June 19, 2020
Dear Families,
This message comes packed with many emotions...excitement, relief, anticipation, and all mixed with a good dose of exhaustion!
As we mentioned in the last Message, we were planning our Universal Testing clinic throughout the building. Last Thursday and Friday, we were able to test all our residents in both Skilled and Personal Care, as well as all our staff. We are so excited and humbled to share that after 4 months from the beginning of this Pandemic, we are
100%
COVID-19-
FREE!!
We know that most of you received calls sharing the news with you about your loved one’s test results but we were unable to fully share the outcome until all reports were collected. Some of our employees were tested at area pharmacies and those results took a bit longer to retrieve.
We have shared with our staff our gratitude, but we’d also like to share with you as well that this outcome stems from all of us making good choices and continuing to practice those safety measures after we leave as well as at work! But remember, this virus continues to spread in areas that have reopened and where people have relaxed the recommendations of hand-washing, social distancing and wearing a mask. We are reminded daily that if we do not abide by these recommendations, we will see another wave.
We continue to understand and empathize the frustrations we are all feeling about desperately wanting life to return to normal. Our residents yearn for that; and we know you do as well. Please continue to be patient with the process. We are continuing to follow the guidelines and restrictions that have been mandated to us by the Dept. of Health and the CDC. We made quick decisions in March to completely shut down and allow no one other than staff into the building and only after thoroughly screening each one. We believe that this was critical in the result of remaining COVID-19-free.
We are committed to continue our communication with you for as long as you are unable to visit your loved ones. We hear the frustration in your voices and we promise to continue to reach out to you through FaceTime, calls and those very important porch visits. We realize you can’t touch them, or hug them or see them more than 6-feet away...but we will continue to do all those things while telling them how much you can’t wait to do that yourselves!
Stay tuned for more information on something we are working on and are monitoring the weather forecast in order to make it perfect! We would like to have a ‘parade’ for our residents with as many of you as possible participating! We need to make sure that the weather is predicted to be as nice as possible because we’d like to take as many residents as possible outside on the sidewalk so that you can ‘parade’ past! We will provide you with more information as it gets closer!!
Meanwhile, thank you for supporting us; thank you for caring for us in so many generous ways; and thank you for knowing that we are doing our very best for you and the people we love.
Stay well,
Michelle
Michelle Knobloch
Chief Executive Officer
Terry
Terry Ziegler
Director of Nursing
