July 17, 2020
Dear Families,
As we continue to navigate the ever-changing waves of this ‘new way’, we will continue to share with you the status of all of us at Pickering Manor.
We have thus far remained COVID-19-free; both among out residents and staff. (Disclaimer: we had one staff person in March that tested positive but had no resulting positives in our residents/staff). We continue to screen all employees upon entering and exiting the facility and we continue to monitor the vital signs/temperatures of our residents on every shift.
The PA Department of Health recently released guidelines on ‘Reopening’. I’m sure this has been on the forefront of your thoughts since all this began; as it has been on ours. Their universal guidance is prudent, and allows each facility to function within the parameters of their capabilities to continue to provide safety to their populations.
With that being said, you can review in this link our ‘
Reopening Implementation Plan’. In it, you will see that there are 3 Steps that each facility must follow, and because we are COVID-19-free, we can process to Step 2 & 3 and resume some of the activities that we were mandated to remove 4 months ago.
We can resume Communal Dining in the Atrium. Our Dining and Nursing staff have worked together to clear the Atrium of all furniture except for chairs and Dining tables. Residents will again be able to enjoy each other’s company, but must be seated 6 feet away from their neighbors. We can also resume Communal Activities. Our Activity staff have been such an asset throughout this entire time as they connect our residents to all of you and that will continue to happen; but they may now conduct activity programming with groups of 10 residents or less. Again, this will allow communication, contact and laughter to be shared among our residents!
We’re also excited that Suzanne Heary, our Hairdresser, will be rejoining us during the first week of August. She will be tested as all of us have been and will be temped in/out as one of our staff. We all know that this will certainly go a long way to making our residents feel better!!
Our visitor ‘visits’ will continue to be outdoor porch/window visits. We actually started these visits before the Dept. of Health gave us specific protocols, so those visits will remain the same. Their directives are that residents can receive visitors, but they recommend outdoors and maintain a 6-ft distance. We have found that this is most effective with the porch/windows being the natural divider; keeping everyone safe. There have been no suggestions to date that visits within the resident living areas will resume any time soon.
It’s very important to note that all of these accommodations will cease if any of 2 events occur: 1) Should we have a positive case within our resident and/or staff population, or 2) Should the Governor change our status from Green to Red in Bucks County.
We remain vigilant; we must. For the sake of all our residents and one another. We are all ‘tired’ and so want to go back to life as normal. But we cannot turn our backs on the scientists and the evidence that points to the fact that this is far from being over. We need to continue to be mindful that it lives among us and we need to each do our parts to prevent the spread. Therefore, we will wear masks, socially distance at least 6 feet from others whenever possible and wash our hands or use hand sanitizer. We encourage all our staff to avoid large social gatherings during these days of summer vacations...and we would hope that all of you would continue these same practices as well. We will also abide by the mandates set forth by our State and Local government and Health Departments who must make decisions for the ‘good of the whole’.
Please join us and bear with us as we continue to care and love for those you’ve trusted in our hands. We still need you. And most of all, so do our residents. We all miss one another. But we will continue to do our best to remain in touch, reach out to each other through technology and to continue our porch visits throughout.
Thank you, as always for your patience and strength. We, too pray for those as well. In the meantime, always call us with any questions, concern and support. We will be there.
Michelle
Michelle Knobloch
Chief Executive Officer
Terry
Terry Ziegler
Director of Nursing
