March 20, 2020 | 4:55 PM
The Beacon Hill Friday Rundown
Everything that’s been happening on campus related to
the Coronavirus prevention efforts

We understand that your inbox is probably overflowing with emails surrounding COVID-19. At Beacon Hill, we’d like to keep you in the loop of everything happening here, so every Friday we will be sending you the rundown of the latest activity on Coronavirus prevention efforts.

We’ve also been adding strict policies and procedures for the safety of our residents. The great news is that these policies and procedures have been working in a preventive manner. At this time, we are reporting no symptoms of COVID-19 on campus . If you ever want to check for new information between these letters, don’t forget you can always go to our website at: beaconhillgr.org/covid-19

We’ve been diligently heeding the CDC, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and local and federal guidelines for safety precautions to keep all of our residents, staff, and families healthy.

OUR COVID-19 RESPONSE
Screenings

We have been consistently monitoring the health of our residents. Each group of residents goes through screenings at various intervals depending on their current living arrangements:

  • Skilled nursing residents are screened twice per day
  • Memory support residents, and Assisted Living residents once per day
  • Independent Living residents every week

In order to increase accessibility and save time before employee’s shifts, we’ve implemented electronic screening forms for our employees, who are required to complete a screening prior to every shift. This can be done online up to 4 hours prior to the shift starting, or onsite.

For visitors , we’ve provided this same electronic screening form, available on our COVID-19 page , or at the concierge entry.

Always be prepared

In the event that there is an emergency, we have developed emergency protocols that will allow us to act quickly if we get a positive case identified on site. We’ve also been helping our residents plan ahead with health care decisions, and advanced care planning across the campus. Each day, our emergency team updates one another and makes changes to policies and procedures to ensure everyone’s safety.

Our resident medical expert, Dr. Rieske, MD, has been keeping up to date with what is happening for COVID-19 across the state: number of cases reported, test availability, hospital services, statistics, and more. 


LIFE AT BEACON HILL
Looking out for our staff

I t is absolutely necessary that we take care of our people—employees, residents, and vendors. Many of us cannot work at home. Our work caring for others is vital, and these residents depend on us each day to provide food, comfort, and engagement. We are committed to helping keep our population healthy, while still running operations at Beacon Hill as smoothly as possible.
As a thank you to all of our hardworking staff, our community host, John Steketee, has been giving out gift cards to local restaurants. He purchased 250 gift cards on behalf of Beacon Hill to both support our local businesses, and to thank our staff. 

Staying connected

Part of what makes Beacon Hill such a special place, is how connected and social our residents are. Times like these of increased social isolation can lead to increased anxiety and depression. We’re taking all steps possible to help combat any negative effects of our safety protocols. We’ve added some new ways to help our residents with daily tasks so they may stay home, as well as feeling connected to the rest of the community:

  • Weekly meeting of the resident council to address resident concerns
  • Added grocery shopping service
  • In-room exercise programs
  • Additional availability with our Chaplain Travis and Rich Verkaik came out of retirement to help. 
  • Social enrichment activities like:
  • sharing family and pet photos
  • a residents’ recipes book
  • stories of kindness and gratitude
  • Facebook live events that will allow our residents to feel part of a large event, without having to be there in person

Beacon Hill continues to encourage social distancing while still maintaining our 5-star dining. We’ve provided the option for takeout or delivery service, and updated our dining times and seating arrangements for those residents wishing to dine in one of our restaurants, including converting our community room into another dining area to allow for better social distancing. We’ve limited the reservations to 2 hours apart, to allow for disinfection of all surfaces between meals.

We understand that for our families who have loved ones at 1845 Boston St, these recent safety precautions have been reducing face to face time with family, which is very difficult. We’ve begun a series of initiatives which will help close this distance between our residents and families.

  • Implemented a new policy that will allow for drop off of items to their loved one at 1845
  • Implementing a new tablet program that will allow for internet connectivity for each of our residents at 1845, with video chat capabilities
  • Implemented a new compassionate visit policy
  • Story-telling and one-on-one activities to keep up social interactions and mental stimulation

As always, thank you to everyone for making Beacon Hill a safe, healthy and wonderful place for our residents to live.
For more information, co ntact Beacon Hill at Eastgate
616-245-9179 | BeaconHillGR.org