Dear Patients, Families and Community:
As the week comes to a close, I wanted to provide you with an update on behalf of Dulles Health & Rehab Center.
COVID-19
As of the date of this letter, we continue to have no patients or employees that have tested positive for COVID-19. We hope this is very reassuring news for you.
Mitigation
The Virginia Department of Health released guidance for phased re-opening of nursing homes on June 19, 2020. This guidance outlines a plan for methodically and safely easing many of the restrictions that have been in place for the protection of patients and staff in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our center is currently working to satisfy all of the requirements for entering phase I, and many of the required elements have already been in place for several weeks. One of these elements that I’ve shared previously is having a trained infection preventionist in the center who monitors all COVID-19 prevention activities. A second element that is already in place includes designating a space or unit in the center for the care of COVID-19 patients should an outbreak occur. I will provide more information on the additional required elements of phase I in the coming weeks.
Testing
We are preparing for the upcoming prevalence testing of patients and staff that I announced in last week’s update. Our testing date is June 30th. Because this widespread testing is a requirement of all nursing facilities as part of the phased reopening, we expect that there may be a delay in receiving the test results. I will keep you apprised of the most up-to-date information on testing as we learn more.
PPE
Our supply of PPE is at a level that allows for more traditional use, rather than having to operate under the conservation measures as outlined by the CDC for those centers who have a PPE shortage. Having an adequate supply of PPE is another element of the phased reopening, and our team has worked diligently to ensure that we have the supplies we need to safely provide care and to protect patients and staff.
Visitation
CMS recently released an FAQ on nursing home visitation that coincides with the phased reopening. While visitation currently remains restricted under federal and state orders, CMS has offered suggestions for conducting outdoor visits. We are working on internal guidance to ensure that we are able to safely and responsibly conduct outdoor visits and plan to begin offering this type of visitation on a more regular basis. Because outdoor visitation will require that staff accompany patients and certain controls to be in place, we will need to schedule visits in advance and must limit the number of visitors per visit. I will provide more information on this topic in the coming days.
Communication
Beginning this week, we will be emailing these weekly updates in addition to providing a link through text messages as a means of increasing access to this information. We have the ability to add the contact information of additional family members at any time and want to remind you to update cell phone numbers and email addresses should your contact information change.
Thank You
We have been celebrating National CNA Week for the past week. This special group of staff members are an integral part of our care team and we are grateful for their contributions.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me directly with concerns or questions.
Sincerely,
Leslie Ruffner, LNHA
Administrator
