We thank you for your cooperation during this community surge and our recent facility outbreak. We thankfully are seeing the numbers of active cases slowing down and thankfully no one is showing strong symptoms. All resident tests this week have been negative! As of midnight January 27, 2022, there were no positive staff or residents test results. The last date of positive result this past week was 1/24/2022 (staff).
From this recent outbreak which started on December 29, 2021, we have had 43 residents test positive of which 35 have completed the 14 day quarantine period. The number of active cases of COVID in our building is now down to 8. Most of our positive staff have completed quarantine and have already returned to work. We are following CDC and department of health guideance related to contact tracing and testing.
We will be keeping all of our units on yellow or red status into next week related to the potential exposure period of 14 days from the last positive case. Our next full house testing will be January 31, 2022, for staff and Tuesday February 1, 2022 for residents.
In a continued effort to manage and control the escalation of the outbreak, we have been working with our local department of health office and are starting to gradually open back up. We will be limiting any in-person visits to end of life or compassionate care situations for our second, third and fourth floor residents until those units are back to green status. This is because these units had the most cases and still have some red zones. We will have dates for those units going to green status in next week’s letter.
Our 5th floor had the lowest number of cases and has no red zones, so this is the first unit that we will be starting with gradual reopening for visits. While we do not recommend it, as this unit will be in yellow (quarantine) status until February 4, 2022, due to potential exposure, visitors can come in for 5th floor residents, starting January 28, 2022, if desired. Additional PPE of gown, gloves and eye protection must be worn in addition to masks. Visits are limited to the resident’s room. Gowns and gloves must be taken off and disposed of in the trash receptacle when the leaving the isolation room. It is very critical that all visitors adhere our visitation guidelines which can be found at Visitation Guidelines on our website.
We will hopefully be opening the remaining floors back up following next week’s testing.
Face Time calls: To schedule Face Time calls for residents in our yellow or red zones please contact Ahava Menachin or Samantha DePaul in Life Enrichment. Ahava can be reached at amenachin@jhep.org or 570-344-6177 ext. 1113 and Samantha at sdepaul@jhep.org or 570-344-6177 ext 1314. Please note we have had some staff out in Life Enrichment staff out temporarily so if you have any difficulty reaching the Life Enrichment Department to set up virtual visits please contact the receptionist who will rely your message and have someone call you back. As much as we would like to provide daily face time calls for all families that are requesting them, we ask your understanding to be flexible and try to limit requests to no more than 3 times weekly so that we can meet all of the residents’ virtual visits and activity schedules.
Our Facility’s Resident Impact (Since March 30, 2020, through January 27, 2022)
8 – Residents currently in our building with a confirmed active case of COVID 19
100- CONFIRMED: Residents with laboratory positive COVID-19
0 – SUSPECTED: Residents with new suspected COVID-19
101 – Confirmed Staff Total: with a positive COVID-19
- Please note that test results are reported on our call-in line at 570-207-6711 which is updated daily if we have new positive results. Family members and all others impacted by the virus will be contacted directly and provided with results and updates.
Thank you again for entrusting us with the care of your loved ones. If you have any questions, we are always available for you.
Sincerely,
Mary Rose Applegate, MBA, RD, NHA
Administrator
