May 16, 2020

Hello Everyone

We continue to appreciate all that you and your loved ones are doing to heed the precautions put in place to alleviate risk of exposure to COVID-19. I am relieved to tell you that there are no cases of reported outbreak nor signs nor symptoms of COVID-19 in any of our residents or staff here at Nanaimo Seniors’ Village.

Island Health has advised that in the event a resident does test positive (confirmed case) they will be transferred to a COVID-19 cohort unit in acute care at a designated hospital (RJH, NRGH or CVH). This is a further precautionary measure Island Health has made to keep people safe.  While we appreciate phone calls about visitation be advised that we will continue to heed the Provincial Ministry of Health orders for Long term care.  We will still need to be cautious as the province moves through the next phases of BC’s Restart Plan.

Housekeeping and Laundry:

We are increasing staff education to keep up to date on the additional protocols of cleaning, sanitation, handwashing and COVID-19 education ,

We have increased staffing levels in order to increase the sanitation and cleaning through the 3 communities.

Assisted Living :

We have opened our General Store In Assisted Living on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between the hours of 1:30-2:30 following physical distancing guidelines. All items will just be charged to the resident’s account.

Nursing :

We are very pleased to have Erin, she is designated as the NSV COVID-19 Coach from Island Health. She has been a tremendous help to us. She is an educator who specializes in Hand Hygiene/Use of Surgical Mask audits, she provides staff education for hand hygiene, Donning and Doffing of PPE, taking Swabs for the lab etc.  She is here Monday to Friday.  In addition to celebrating Nurses week we sponsored training for our Nurses with Point Click Care which will fine tune our documentation, assessments and charting.

Recreation Staff:

Due to social distancing orders we are discouraging window visits at this time and are encouraging family members and loved ones to connect with your family member via telephone call, or FACETIME or SKYPE. Please note that we are in the midst of recruiting additional activity aids and Recreation Staff.

To inquire about facetime/skype or phone calls or if you want to write a letter or send a picture for us to print, please contact the Recreation Department in Complex Care by email at: nsvrecreation@retirementconcepts.com or call 250-760-2616. For Assisted and Independent Living, you can contact our Manager of Recreation Therapy, Tracey Leslie at tleslie@retirementconcepts.com or call 250-760-2316 and we would be happy to do that for you.

Chef Mike :

We are working on a plan to open the Assisted Living Dining Room. We  have no dates at this time, however we are placing floor markers and arranging staffing to ensure that when we do, we will be able to keep everyone at a social distance.

Protocols 

We are following the direction of our public health officials to the letter and have full infection prevention and control precautions in place. Staff continue to monitor residents closely and are ensuring the following protocols are being adhered to:

• 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
• appropriate application and removal of personal protective equipment (PPE), and the use of individual slings (cloth component of a personal lift).
• ensuring ongoing, environmental cleaning and 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.

This is a reminder that if you would like information on your Family Member’s Health Status you will need to call your relatives nursing unit as follows:

A Wing 1^st. Floor (Rooms 101 – 115) – 250-585-9111

C/D Wing 1^st. Floor (Rooms 116 – 145) – 250-760-2308

E/F Wing 1^st. Floor (Rooms 146 – 175) – 250-760-2309

A Wing 2^nd. Floor (Rooms 201 – 215) – 250-585-9113

C/D Wing 2^nd. Floor (Rooms 216 – 245) – 250-760-2312

E/F Wing 2^nd. Floor (Rooms 246 – 275) –250-760-2313

Voicemail messages can be left and our LPNs are committed to return calls on the same day.

Stay Safe everyone,

Sincerely,

The Leadership Team