Covid-19 Safety Measures
You may have seen or heard that Beacon Hill is doing everything we can to help our residents feel comfortable and a continuing part of the community, from hallway games to life enrichment activities. It’s important to us that no one feels isolated or scared. Our high standard of care for residents is still in place at every level of need.
We do want to also reassure you of the large-scale health and safety measures that are taking place behind the scenes.
Firstly, so far Beacon Hill has had no resident or staff member test positive for COVID-19.
Our Director of Nursing, Amanda Daggett, is in contact with local hospitals and Region VI coalition at least twice a week, in addition to regular conversations with Beacon Hill’s medical director to stay on top of the latest COVID-19 developments. So far Kent County has only had 67 inpatient cases of COVID-19 as of April 22, which is reassuring to hear. Beacon Hill is still being very vigilant and taking every possible precaution necessary, starting with the very first step inside Beacon Hill.
We are minimizing the amount of staff that we need in each building. We are keeping staff separated between our two campuses in order to reduce any cross-contamination risk. We are able to have testing kits delivered to us with a fast turn-around time so residents who are exhibiting symptoms or may have been exposed are not in unnecessary isolation.
Since residents returning from the hospital for other procedures are considered at higher risk for exposure, we have set up a High Visibility Area (HVA) in our Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF). This HVA area is designed to act as a fully-functioning separate unit, yet still accessible within the SNF. It has a separate entry and exit point, and all items necessary to have on hand for whatever procedure a resident would need. Anyone returning from the hospital for other procedures are temporarily placed in our eight isolation rooms, with designated staff taking extra precautions. Everything for that section of the building is completely separate, from the washer and dryer and linens to the scanner and printer. This also acts as a safe area for any staff or residents that are exhibiting symptoms to stay quarantined from others.
When it comes to staffing, Beacon Hill has been fortunate that the staff have been more than willing to step up their game and enforce stringent practices, as they’ve trained to do. “We know how to prevent illness. We know how to do this. Now is the time when all your training pays off,” said Amanda Daggett, Beacon Hill Director of Nursing. “We know precautions for infection control — you have to be on your A game. We’ve known this and we’ve planned for it.”
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