For weeks, the nursing administrative team has been conceptualizing a dedicated, fully segregated COVID-19 Care Unit within the Skilled Nursing facility and we are thrilled to announce that the unit is ready to accept its first patient!
Always willing to meet a challenge, our hard-working and innovative facilities team has put up a wall to cordon off a cluster of private rooms on the North Hallway, installed ductwork creating negative pressure in all rooms in the space (an infection control measure essentially unheard of outside the hospital setting), and made critical modifications to ensure compliance with life safety and fire codes. Nursing administration has worked to guarantee not only the appropriate isolation of the COVID-19 positive residents who will occupy the unit, but also the complete separation of the personnel staffing the unit. Nursing staff assigned to the COVID-19 Care Unit will have a separate and dedicated entrance and exit, bathroom facility, and breakroom. Furthermore, nursing staff working the COVID-19 Care Unit will be assigned exclusively to that area and will themselves provide in-room housekeeping and dining services, all strategies aimed at preventing cross-contamination. The unit, which will house only residents with laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19, has the capacity to accommodate 3 to 4 individuals.