September 1, 2021
Dear Families and Residents of Kamloops Seniors Village,
Happy September Everyone! The air is feeling crispier and the days are getting shorter; signs that fall is just around the corner. What a summer we had in the Interior and around the province with heat and smoky skies; it’s nice to see the fires have gotten under control and a lot of alerts have been rescinded. Our thoughts are with everyone that has been affected by the events this summer.
We thank you again for your continued support during these uncertain times.
Please see our updates below as a follow up to our previous daily communication regarding our current Complex Care/Long Term Care 1B & 1C Neighbourhood Outbreak that was declared by the Interior Health Authority Medical Health Officer on Friday, August 27, 2021. The outbreak will continue for a minimum for 28 days from the last positive COVID-19 Case.
To provide some background knowledge of our community, Kamloops Seniors Village is a Campus of Care where we offer all three levels of care under one roof.
On the West side of our building, we have 114 Complex Care/Long Term Care Studio Suites within six (6) Neighbourhoods. Three (3) Complex Care Neighbourhoods are located on the first floor (1A, 1B, &1C), and then three (3) Neighbourhoods are located on the second floor (2A, 2B, & 2C). And then on our East Side of the building, we have 101 Assisted-Independent Living apartment style suites.
As of today, Wednesday, September 1, 2021, no new staff are showing any symptoms or concerns. However, four (4) of the COVID positive residents in 1C are now symptomatic, but are doing well & resting comfortably in their rooms with no clinical concerns at this time.
Our next call with Interior Health and the Medical Health Officer is tomorrow, Thursday, September 2, 2021. We will provide all updates or upcoming asymptomatic testing requests at that time.
We are continuing with low threshold testing in the event residents are showing any minor changes from their standard baseline behavior (i.e decreased appetite, lethargic etc).
Please note, we attempt to provide all updates in a timely manner, however, since outbreaks can change quite rapidly, if anything is missed, we will provide details in the next communication.
On Monday, August 30, 2021, per the Medical Health Officer, the second round of asymptomatic COVID-19 Nasal Pharyngeal testing for the remaining 36 1B & 1C Neighbourhood residents (excluding the previous positive residents) took place.
Asymptomatic rapid testing is being conducted for all KSV staff that worked on the Complex Care 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods from August 3 to current as they are considered exposed since the infectious period goes back 2 weeks. Testing will be completed by Friday, September 3, 2021.
What Does This Outbreak Mean?
Per the Interior Health and Medical Health Officer, the following Control Measures are in place:
– All Complex Care 1B & 1C Neighbourhood Residents are considered exposed with the recent positive resident cases, therefore they will continue to be isolated to their room and will enjoy tray service and meal assistance until further notice. This reduced contact provides increased protection to your loved ones and prevents exposure to the entire community.
– Recreation group activities continue to be cancelled on the 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods; other Complex Care neighbourhoods’ recreation activities are proceeding, but are restricted to their own neighbourhood cohort & socially distanced in small groups
– Social Visitations continue to be cancelled on both the 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods
– Essential Visitation (per the BC CDC Guidelines) is permitted on the 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods for ONLY Fully Vaccinated Essential Visitors. They must follow full PPE parameters (gowns/mask/face shield). There is an approval process as the MHO will determine if a visit is essential.
– Palliative Visitation is permitted on the 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods, but visitors must follow full PPE parameters (gowns/mask/face shield) within the neighbourhood. Unvaccinated visitors must isolate 10 days from the date of the most recent visit date
– Urgent Appointments for 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods can continue, but must be approved/deemed urgent by their Medical Practitioner
What Are the Next Steps?
– Our Recreation team is working on an Action Plan for the affected Complex Care 1B & 1C residents to facilitate Recreation Aide 1:1 Visits & virtual visits. They recently delivered activity care packages to all isolated residents on both the 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods to utilize in their room and are creating cheerful window décor to keep everyone in good spirits.
– Our staff continue to diligently monitor our remaining residents for symptoms.
– Our Clinical Team is having routine calls three (3) times per week with the Interior Health and Medical Health Officer to review our outbreak response plan & to communicate further developments. They have gone well this week thus far.
– We continue to cohort our care staff and support service staff members
– Our staff continue to wear appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in all the right places. Any time staff are going into a COVID positive resident’s room to provide care they will be wearing full PPE (gown, gloves & goggles or face shield). All other times staff will be wearing masks and goggles or face shields other than when physically eating.
– We continue to be attentive to our hand hygiene practices. Hand washing, hand washing, and hand washing.
– Our housekeeping team continue to perform enhanced cleaning through the community including using our handheld electrostatic disinfection system throughout common areas & resident rooms as it’s able to spray larger surfaces more efficiently.
CURRENT EVENTS
UPCOMING FEDERAL ELECTION
Kamloops Seniors Village will be hosting an onsite advance polling station for our Assisted-Independent Living tenants. Our station is arranged for Monday, September 13th from 9:30-3:00pm, in the lower level Multipurpose Room.
Due to the current outbreak situation on our Complex Care side, Long Term Care residents will not be able to participate & vote in person at the polling station. However, they will be able to vote by mail.
Therefore, Complex Care Residents’ families can go online and request a vote by mail package no later than the 14th of September, 6:00PM. The package is to be addressed to the resident’s Kamloops Seniors Village address, and then the recreation team will facilitate their vote, and mail the package on the residents’ behalf. If you have any questions, please reach out to our new Recreation Manager, Kiara Janzen kjanzen@retirementconcepts.com.
All updates will continue to be communicated to you in daily communications such as this, which will also be posted to the Community Update Section of our Website after it is sent out to you. If you have other family or friends who would like to be updated, please feel free to direct them to www.retirementconcepts.com
Deliveries
All deliveries continue to be received. All items will be sanitized and delivered directly to the resident’s suites.
Teamwork
We would like to thank you all for your understanding, patience and support. It takes a village and we appreciate all the kind words of support we have received thus far. They mean so much to us and especially the staff.
Contact Information
If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to Cara Haughton, our Community Relations Manager at 250-574-0037, or via email.
Staff COVID-19 Vaccination Information
We also wanted to provide some further information regarding the current mandates for staff vaccinations. As a licensed Long Term Care (Complex Care) and Assisted Living community, we follow the mandates of the BC Provincial Health Officer. The current health order stipulates that the COVID-19 vaccine is encouraged, but not mandatory.
Recently on August 12, 2021, Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Medical Health Officer, announced a new upcoming mandate where all Long Term Care & Assisted Living staff must have a Covid-19 vaccine by October 12. The details of the news release is found here.
We continue to promote immunization to our staff, but they have until October 12 to comply with the new mandate. We are awaiting the details of this mandate in writing from the Interior Health Authority in order to comply by the October 12 deadline. All staff continue to wear masks and proper PPE in addition to stringent hand washing protocols.
COVID-19 is a respiratory illness. It can spread through droplets when a person coughs or sneezes, or touching the virus with your hands then touching your face before washing your hands. Symptoms of COVID-19 may be mild or severe. These may include fever, cough, fatigue, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, headache, malaise, vomiting or diarrhea. More severe symptoms can include difficulty breathing or chest pain. While most people will experience mild illness, older adults and people with pre-existing medical conditions are at higher risk for severe illness. Symptoms can be checked online at https://covid19.thrive.health/
For more information you can call 1-888-COVID-19 or text 604-030-0300 for non-medical COVID-19 questions and 8-1-1 for medical COVID-19 questions.
If you are looking to stay up to date on current COVID-19 information, we encourage you to look at the following resources. They are concise, accurate and informative.
Sincerely,
The Kamloops Team