12/13/2020
Dear Maristhill Residents and Families,
The facility has tested all of our staff on December 7th and December 8th per Department of Public Health guidance for those individuals that had previously tested negative. Our staff tested negative for the Covid-19 virus with those tests on the 7th and 8th. However, today I was informed that a contracted staff member tested positive for COVID-19 today. We will be testing all staff and residents on December 14th and we will continue to test both staff and residents every three days until we have seven (7) consecutive days of negative results for our community. We have implemented the recommended guidelines set forth by DPH and CDC to manage a COVID-19 outbreak in our community.
The risk of spreading the COVID 19 virus is very real and with the holidays upon us we are at greater risk to spread the virus. We are suspending all in-person visits effective December 14th. We will resume those visits when clinically appropriate. We will maintain certain compassionate visits relating to end of life for those that are in need of these visits. We ask that you do not send any packages with food at this time as we wish to limit any items from entering the facility. In regards to packages with non-food items we will be quarantining those packages for a 72 hour period. Please no flowers at this time as well. We are aware that this is a difficult time of the year and we hope to resolve this outbreak as quickly as possible with your help.
Please contact our Activity Department to arrange virtual calls with your loved ones and if you have any clinical questions please provide you name and phone number so that a member of the nursing department can call you back to answer your questions. We ask this to prevent our nursing staff from being overwhelmed with calls during critical times of care to the residents.
Again we ask that our residents and staff do all that they can to support our facility and our community by following the recommendations set forth by the CDC and DPH:
- Social Distancing/staying home if possible and wear a facemask in public;
- Washing Hands for 20 seconds with soap and water or use a hand sanitizer;
- Self-isolating if showing any signs or symptoms of COVID-19; and
- Seek medical assistance as necessary
We wish to remind you that we have updated our Maristhill website and we hope that this updated version will be helpful for the families to keep in contact with the activities and news from Maristhill. Also, we still utilize Facetime and Skype for virtual visits with families and residents.
Thank you all for your support. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Regards,
James Tracy
James Tracy,
President
