Dear family and friends,
Since the start of the pandemic, the entire country/world was faced with the reality of a virus that we knew nothing about. The one fact we did know, is that the elderly is of the most vulnerable. With that in mind, our staff have worked tirelessly to ensure your loved ones, our residents, were and are kept safe at all cost. Ownership halted admissions from the very beginning and invested in top of the line PPE, ensuring our staff and residents were and are well protected at all times. We put systems in place that superseded DHS and CDC guidelines with one objective in mind, to protect our number one priority, our residents.
The purpose of this letter is to notify you all that we have conducted COVID19 tests on all of our residents and staff, and we are very grateful and happy to report that all results were negative. As per DHS, this brings us one step closer to our residents being permitted to have visitors. We are hopeful that Briarwood will be open for visitors within 2 weeks’ time. In preparation of that, we would like to share some procedures that we are putting in place to ensure the utmost safety of our residents, staff, and visitors. They are as follows:
Visiting hours are by appointment only. We ask that families call ahead prior to visiting so we can ensure visiting area is available and appropriately disinfected.
All visitors will be screened prior to visiting. This screening will consist of visitor’s temperature being taken and answering a number of COVID19 related questions.
All visitors will be required to wear a mask and wash hands/sanitize prior to entering facility
A visitation area has been set up outside, weather permitting. An indoor area has been set up as well and will be used only if the outdoor visiting area is not an option. This area will be set up in a way that promotes social distancing, will have sanitizer available and will be disinfected by our staff after each use.
Visitor and Resident are required to wear a mask throughout the entire visit, physical contact is not allowed during visit and social distancing rules must be kept at all times.
With the opening of visitation being a turning point for our residents, we would like to say thank you to them. Our amazing residents have shown a resilience throughout these past 4 months that continues to inspire us as we forge ahead. Additionally, we would like to thank all of our dedicated families who have supported us throughout this extremely difficult time. As a final thought, although we have a tremendous amount of gratitude regarding our current COVID free status, rest assured that our resolve to stay that way is stronger than ever. Our Infection Control and Screening systems remain tight and will stay that way until further notice.
As always, I am available for any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call.
Sincerely,
Tara Donaghy
Administrator
