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Saturday November 7th

Hello Family and Friends of Rosemary Heights:

At this time, there are no new residents with COVID 19 symptoms. We want to thank our families for their kind words and patience getting to this point. While we are cleared of active cases in the building, we are still under strict Outbreak Precautions to ensure no new cases arise.

We do have a staff member off currently as they had expressed they had flu like symptoms and they will be getting re-tested for COVID even though this staff member tested earlier this week (Nov 3) and their result was negative.  We will update you once we learn of their results.

Many of asked, how did we think we minimized the exposure in our building & keep our numbers low?  Out of 126 team members currently employed at Rosemary Heights (includes every department from kitchen, housekeeping, laundry, care aides, nurses, home support workers, recreation, and administration staff), we had only 2 staff test positive and with the swift actions of our team we feel that we minimized the exposure to our 153 residents.   With 3 levels of care under one roof, we contained the virus that could have easily spread throughout the entire community. With the quick action from everyone involved, and having such low numbers of staff & residents infected is a testament to how well our team reacted & controlled the situation.

We continue to cohort staff to work only on their designated floors and units to avoid cross contamination. This means we are not permitting staff to cross from one side of the floor/unit to the other or to access any other floors during work times in our building.  We also have set up separate entry & exit points with active screeners for each area to ensure our staff are prescreened prior to their shift & mid-way throughout their shift and to minimize the exposure to other departments.  Not to mention the enhanced cleaning of every floor & area that every team member participated in daily, hand hygiene, wearing the safety PPE and keeping their external bubbles small and social activity to a minimum

All 2nd floor residents remain isolated in their rooms where meals are delivered, and they are monitored closely. We have confirmed with Fraser health that we may be entering a Step Down Phase by Wednesday Nov 11th if no further residents or staff show symptoms related to COVID.

Our dining room remains closed, family visitations are cancelled – and all group activities are paused. Unfortunately, we will not be able to permit family visits during step down. After the outbreak is declared over in 14 days, we will resume these visits with precautions.

The Step Down Phase doesn’t mean our Outbreak is over, but it means that Fraser Health Authority will allow us to hopefully remove the droplet precautions from all our residents who tested negative. Residents will continue to isolate in their suites for another week or so per Fraser Health, as long as there are no more symptomatic residents, until the Outbreak is officially declared over by Fraser Health Authority.

In an effort to prevent another Outbreak at Rosemary Heights, we will increase our infection control practices and revisit how our staff interact with residents in cohorts.  Families will be informed once the Outbreak is declared over, at which point family in-person visits can be resumed, with precautions. Over the next 2 weeks, we will retrain our team on Covid-19 Protocols frequently to ensure that they are aware of all procedures to be followed should a resident become symptomatic.

If your loved one becomes symptomatic or needs to be swabbed, we will call the family and inform them of what’s transpired.

For your knowledge, here is an example of what would happen if a resident becomes symptomatic over the next two weeks:

1) Resident will be isolated to their suite and placed on droplet precautions.

2) Resident will be swabbed for Covid-19 as well as the Flu, and family will be informed.

3) Resident will have cohorted care.

4) If the results are negative, the resident will be lifted off droplet precautions as long as their symptoms resolve.

5) If the results are positive, we will begin our 28-day Outbreak Protocol and follow the directives of Public Health in order to minimize and contain the spread.

For those inquiring, Flu shots cannot commence until after the Outbreak has been declared over. We do have the vaccines already at the community and will administer the flu shots to all residents once we get the approval to do so.  Please be assured that intense safety precautions will be implemented to keep everyone safe and healthy.

Communication

We will continue to communicate with all families via email on a daily basis.

In the event of a positive Covid-19 test result for a staff member or resident, we will provide all families of residents with a daily email update that will also be posted under Retirement Concepts COVID 19 updates on our website. We also phone the families of residents if their loved one has tested positive.  Should the condition of any specific resident change, their family and loved ones will be notified immediately.

Protocols

We are following protocols established by the Health Authority, the Office of the Provincial Health Officer and BC Center for Disease Control.

We will continue to act upon their latest advice, and will adapt our operations as necessary and recommended.

Deliveries

Monday – Friday 10am-2pm, and Saturday 1-3pm only, closed to all Sunday deliveries

All deliveries for all resident floors will be received at the lobby entrance vestibule. This includes medication deliveries from pharmacies, other gifts and mail. All items will be sanitized and delivered directly to the residents’ suite.  Deliveries for all areas including Long term care 1st & 2nd floors along with Independent/Assisted Living can now be delivered.

When dropping items off, we would ask that families please follow the following guidelines to ensure loved ones will receive their deliveries in a timely manner:

  1. Please use plastic bags, not reusable bags;
  2. Please label all bags with the resident’s name and suite number.
  3. In consideration of staff-to-resident priorities as well as infection control, please try to limit drop offs to essential items; and.
  4. If possible, please sanitize the items before dropping off. We will re-sanitize as well to be safe.

Acknowledgements

We know this continues to be an anxious time for everyone.  We would like to close this communication by thanking families for their tremendous support and patience during this difficult period.

We also wish to acknowledge all the staff, who continue to go above and beyond.

Stay Safe, stay calm, & stay kind.

– Your team at Rosemary Heights Seniors Village (RHSV)