Guildford Seniors Village – Update, April 23, 2020

As we confirmed yesterday, a case of COVID-19 has been confirmed involving a staff member at Guildford Seniors Village in Surrey, and that staff member is home and in self-isolation.

Status

Today, all residents remain symptom free. However, out of an abundance of caution, we have isolated residents to their respective rooms, where their meals are also being provided.

Please know that the care and safety of residents is our number one priority and we are treating the situation very seriously.

Protocols

BC’s Medical Health Officer has been notified and the Guildford Seniors Village is following protocols established by the Office of the Provincial Health Officer and BC Center for Disease Control.

As such, we are following direction by health officials and have full infection prevention and control precautions in place, including the following:

• restricting ALL visitors from the premises
• ensuring no staff member is working in multiple facilities
• staff are working strictly within an assigned unit and not multiple units
• staff are removing outside clothing and footwear before entering the premises
• staff are screened for their temperature upon entrance to the building, and midway through their shift
• social distancing is occurring among residents in each facility, including during mealtimes when meals are delivered to each resident, in their suite
• appropriate application and removal of personal protective equipment (PPE), and the use of individual slings (cloth component of a personal lift).
• ensuring ongoing, environmental sanitizing, cleaning with increased frequency of high touch surfaces in order to break the chain of infection
• staff and residents are committed to regular/proper hand hygiene to break the chain of infection, by washing their hands with soap and water and applying hand sanitizer.

We will continue to act upon the latest advice of BC’s health ministry and will adapt our operations as necessary and recommended.

Communication

We will provide you with daily email updates on the status of the Guildford Seniors Village.

Dining Room 

All meals are being delivered in disposable containers to each resident in their suite to support cautionary isolation and support infection control.

Deliveries

All deliveries will be received at lobby entrance vestibule. Only if necessary, this includes medications deliveries from pharmacy, floral, gifts, mail. All items will be sanitized and delivered directly to the residents’ suite.

Dropping items off: We would ask that families please follow these guidelines to ensure loved ones will receive their deliveries in a timely manner.

1. Please use plastic bags; no reusable bags
2. Make sure to label all bags with resident name and suite number
3. Try to limit drop offs to essential items, for infection control and in consideration of staff to resident care priorities.
4. Please sanitize, if possible, the items before dropping off. We will re-sanitize as well to be safe

Staffing

We remain at adequate staffing levels and have sufficient PPE for staff to do their job in the safest way possible.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank staff for their dedication as well as families and loved ones for their patience and cooperation during this time.