Bloom Senior Living Health Alert: Coronavirus Update #22

Dear Bloom Residents, Families & Friends:

It has been a few weeks since our last update. Nothing has dramatically changed since our last correspondence. The residents are continuing to do well. We nonetheless wanted to touch base to keep the communication open, consistent and transparent and assure you that we're still hard at work behind the scenes.

In addition to fighting COVID-19, we continue roll out new operational and cultural programs that will position Bloom for the future. If anything, COVID accelerated our efforts. In the words of our wonderful Director of Education & Development, Melissa Campbell, speaking to a big announcement Bloom made last week (regarding culture and education):

"While Bloom's primary focus over the last six months has been keeping COVID-19 out of its nine communities and its residents safe and blooming, our company also appreciates that battling the global pandemic and completing this multi-year plan are not mutually exclusive. In fact, if anything, COVID-19 only highlights that Bloom has been on the right track and accelerated our efforts. Our owners - intimately involved in the operation - have felt strongly that completing the implementation of these critical operational elements would be essential in accomplishing Bloom's goal of keeping our community physically safe and emotionally thriving, while at the same time building an even stronger company for the future. Despite the challenges associated with this unprecedented time, I've never seen our skilled teams so resilient, energized and cohesive and our culture so contagious. They have taken action and made decisions based on the principles they - and our company - value (consistent with our education); selflessly cared for the residents like family; nurtured our company culture and provided leadership and empathy to residents, families and other associates, which has helped Bloom overcome this virus with as many positive outcomes as possible. It's a culmination of our plan and efforts over all these years."

Testing

We continue to test for COVID-19 at a high rate throughout our Bloom communities and have performed nearly 900 tests since this global pandemic first surfaced. We're thankful that we pro-actively partnered with a commercial (FDA approved) laboratory early on, which has contributed to keeping our residents and associates safe. While the virus has been surging in various States, our infection rates remain comparatively low.

With 9 Bloom Independent Living, Assisted Living and Memory Care communities in 5 states -- Florida, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina and Louisiana -- and almost 400 associates serving over 750 residents, we currently have only 1 resident (that experienced mild symptoms) test positive for COVID-19. That resident is now symptom free. We have no associates who are currently COVID-19 positive. Our chart below has been updated.

The Center For Disease Control (CDC) updated its guidance on retesting and has laid out a new testing strategy. "Except for rare cases, a test-based strategy is no longer recommended to determine when an individual with SARS-CoV-2 infection is no longer infectious (i.e. to discontinue Transmission-Based Precautions or home isolation)." Substantively, this means Bloom will follow the new CDC guidance and use a time / symptom based strategy for determining when to discontinue isolation for COVID-19 positive residents or associates.

While even one positive case remains too many, we continue to be proud of our corporate and local teams who have not stopped working 24/7 to keep our residents safe and flourishing. Even though we're six months into the pandemic, we're not getting fatigued. Our culture remains strong, our teams remain energized, our attitude remains positive and our residents are staying physically and emotionally healthy. Our teams are also committed to ensuring our residents are still having fun, creating memories and laughing each day.

While our residents / your loved ones are doing well, we commit to you that now more than ever -- with States reopening and cases spiking -- we'll continue to pro-actively battle this virus, keep it out of the communities and immediately mitigate any potential issues. As we said during our last update (and remains true): every minute of every day is spent trying to achieve the best possible outcomes for our Bloom community! We're acting with urgency!

Bloom "Back On Track Plan"

Phase I

The following Bloom communities remain in Phase I of the Bloom Back on Track Plan:

Bloom at Belfair Memory Care (South Carolina)

Bloom at Bluffton (South Carolina)

Bloom at Bossier (Louisiana)

Bloom at Hilton Head (South Carolina)

Bloom at Lakewood (Ohio)

Bloom at German Church (Indiana)

Bloom at Eagle Creek (Indiana)

Bloom at Kokomo (Indiana)

Bloom at St. Petersburg in Florida remains the outlier to Phase 1 based on state guidance.

Phase II

The following Bloom community remains in Phase II of the Bloom Back on Track Plan:

Bloom at Belfair Independent Living (South Carolina)

We advised you during our last update that our residents belong together and we've been actively evaluating moving additional communities into Phase II shortly. We also advised you that reopening will not be linear and we may need to make adjustments based upon the data. Due to the current, and trending, hot spots, we've elected to hold tight on advancing into Phase II for the communities in Phase I. We continue to closely evaluate the situation and will move the communities into Phase II when we feel it is safe. Given our size and flexibility, we can effectuate this plan quickly.

Memory Making Stations

The Memory Making Stations are live and operational at the following Bloom communities:

Bloom at Bossier (Louisiana)

Bloom at Eagle Creek (Indiana)

Bloom at German Church (Indiana)

Bloom at Lakewood (Ohio)

Bloom at Kokomo (Indiana)

Bloom at St. Petersburg (Florida)

We continue to await a decision from the State of South Carolina to allow visitation beyond closed window visits. As soon as we have clearance, Bloom's South Carolina communities, Bloom at Belfair, Bloom at Bluffton and Bloom at Hilton Head, will implement the Memory Making Station. At that time, we'll send a correspondence so that you can begin scheduling visits. We know everyone misses their family and friends.

The Memory Making Stations have been a huge hit. We invite you to read the press below and check out our Facebook page to see the smiling faces of our families and residents reconnecting in a safe and socially distant way.

Please remember you can schedule your Skype or physical visit at our Memory Making Station electronically by clicking below or visiting the Bloom Senior Living website.

Electronic Scheduling System

Other Bloom Initiatives: Culture, Education & Funding

We urge our Bloomers to peruse our press release put out last week (and referenced below) about Bloom completing its multi-year, multi-step and multi-million dollar plan focused upon developing industry leading branding, culture, education and customer service. For those who follow Bloom, none of this will be surprising. Bloom continues allocating time and resources to make its operating platform even stronger. It's why you chose Bloom; and all of these elements are contributing to Bloom's success fighting the virus.

While it goes without saying, we'd like our Bloom community to also know that no expense has been spared, or will be spared, by our family-owned company in fighting this pandemic. Notwithstanding that the senior living industry has yet to receive any government assistance or prioritization, Bloom's independent actions and strong balance sheet ensures we will (and can) continue to "do the right thing" (one of our Bloom Beliefs) and make whatever resources necessary available.

Bloom sits on the Executive Board of the American Senior Housing Association, our industry's leading trade organization, and the Association is at hard at work lobbying Congress to ensure senior living is prioritized for funding, testing and a vaccine when it becomes available.

While there has been a lot of communication on this subject recently, Bloom is sharing an editorial - published by The Hill - by Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) calling for the U.S. government to do more for this demographic that has been disproportionately targeted. The ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, Granger stresses that great emphasis must be placed on getting resources to help these vulnerable Americans. She writes, "I have worked closely with Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) in a bipartisan way to ensure that stimulus money was provided for just these types of situations. Yet it is now obvious that in administering some of these programs, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has not acted quickly enough." She applauds the Trump administration for doing a good job of prioritizing nursing communities early in the pandemic so that they received sorely needed personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies. The problem is many of the nation's seniors reside in senior living communities where they don't require full-time nursing care and can live at a more affordable rate. According to Granger, "these facilities have still not been prioritized by HHS for financial relief. They have not been prioritized for PPE, or for testing supplies, and I fear once a vaccine is approved, they will continue to be overlooked."

Helping our seniors before it's too late

COVID-19 has been the worst health care tragedy in decades. Millions have been stricken ill and more than 120,000 Americans have been killed by it. And perhaps the biggest tragedy of all is that the disease disproportionately targets the elderly. ...

Read more
thehill.com

We continue to consolidated all prior updates, videos and news / announcements put out by Bloom since the emergence of COVID-19 below for your convenience and efficiency. As you can see, we've done a lot in a short amount of time. We hope you'll make some time to look through this material in order to really get a feel for what's happening at Bloom and realize that while so much has changed, so much has also remained the same!

Please continue to look for further communications from us by e-mail and simultaneous posts to our Facebook page and website. Until then, we remain #BLOOMSTRONG!

Sincerely,

Scott and Tony Kantor, and Bradley Dubin

Bloom Owners

BLOOM COMMUNITY COVID-19 DATA - "ACTIVE" CASES

Bloom at Belfair

Total Resident COVID-19 Cases: 0