November 22nd, 2021
To keep you up-to-date on our efforts to keep our residents and staff safe, we will update this page as things change in our community:
- Our COVID-19 situation: We currently have no staff and no residents positive for Covid-19. All residents who test positive for Covid-19 are isolated from the rest of our community and are being treated by a designated staff team. The staff who have tested positive are isolated at home and will not be allowed to return to work until they have recovered and passed our return-to-work protocols. All staff were tested at our community on November 8th and 11th.
- Our supply of protective equipment: Our supply of PPE is well above average. We continue to order PPE as needed.
- Antigen testing: We now have the capability to test using an antigen machine and can receive results back within fifteen (15) minutes. We can use this to test residents and staff who are having symptoms or those who came in close contact with someone who is positive.
- Testing: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid have released regulation for testing going forward on September 2nd, 2020. Depending on the transmission rate in Mower County we could be testing as much as once (1) a week, twice (2) a week or once (1) a month. The current Mower County rate of transmission is 13.45% (considered High transmission rate) We will be testing all staff once (1) a week and unvaccinated staff twice (2) a week.
- Vaccination: 79% of our staff are fully vaccinated. 96% of our nursing home residents are fully vaccinated. 100% of our residents in our Assisted Living are fully vaccinated. CMS has mandated that all healthcare workers must be fully vaccinated by January 4th, 2022. Sacred Heart will make sure to be in compliance with this mandate.
- I have provided a link below under “Resources” on new guidance from Minnesota Department of Health and CMS
- https://www.cms.gov/files/document/covid-19-health-care-staff-vaccination-ifc-6-national-stakeholder-call-slides.pdf
- https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/toolkits/long-term-care/downloads/answering-residents-loved-ones-questions.pdf
- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/LTCF-residents.html
- https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/hcp/ltcvaccine.pdf
- Resources:
We appreciate all of the support, prayers, and offers of help that we’ve received. If you have specific questions or concerns, please contact Chris Schulz, Administrator, 507-433-1808 (cschulz@sacredhcc.org)
To keep you up-to-date on our efforts to keep our residents and staff safe, we will update this page as things change in our community:
- Our COVID-19 situation: We currently have no active COVID-19 cases in our community. All residents who test positive for Covid-19 are isolated from the rest of our community and are being treated by a designated staff team. The staff who have tested positive are isolated at home and will not be allowed to return to work until they have recovered and passed our return-to-work protocols. All staff and SNF residents were tested at our community on January 11th and again on the 14th our staff were tested.
- Our supply of protective equipment: You’ve likely heard about the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) shortage caused by COVID-19. Our supply of PPE is above average. We are working with the State Emergency Operations Center and other vendors to get more supplies as we need them.
- Antigen testing: We now have the capability to test using an antigen machine and can receive results back within fifteen (15) minutes. We can use this to test residents and staff who are having symptoms or those who came in close contact with someone who is positive.
- Testing: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid have released regulation for testing going forward on September 2nd, 2020. Depending on the amount of cases we have in Mower County and/or a positive case in our community we could be testing as much as once (1) a week, twice (2) a week or once (1) a month. The current Mower County rate of positivity is 5.5%, so starting on January 18th we will be testing only staff once (1) a week. If the rate drops to 5% or below we would need to test staff once (1) a month.
- Vaccination: Walgreens provided our first vaccination for Covid-19 on January 4th for our staff and residents. The second clinic is planned for February 1st and the last clinic is planned for March 1st.
- Resources:
-
- www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/isolation/index.html
- https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/hcp/ltcipchohort.pdf
- www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/hcp/hospdischarge.pdf
- www.cms.gov/files/document/covid-facility-holiday-recommendations.pdf
- www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-urging-nursing-homes-follow-established-covid-guidelines-holiday-season
- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/scientific-brief-options-to-reduce-quarantine.html
-
We appreciate all of the support, prayers, and offers of help that we’ve received. If you have specific questions or concerns, please contact Chris Schulz, Administrator, 507-433-1808 (cschulz@sacredhcc.org)
Information about our COVID-19 Protection Actions
Actions we take when a resident/tenant is diagnosed positive for COVID-19:
- Notify the family- we notify families of negative results as well
- Quarantine the individual in an isolated area and/or quarantined to their room
- Work directly with the Minnesota Department of Health to guide our next steps in monitoring and testing residents and staff, as well as infection control to prevent the spread of the virus
- Send a communication out to residents, staff and families about the case
Actions we take when a staff case is diagnosed positive for COVID-19:
- Staff self-quarantines at home
- Work directly with the Minnesota Department of Health to guide our next steps in monitoring and testing residents and staff, as well as infection control to prevent the spread of the virus
- Allow staff to return to work when staff are no longer having symptoms and it has been at least 10 days since their first symptoms first appeared. Fully vaccinated staff can continue to work, if potentially exposed, as long as they are not having symptoms.
Infection Control Measures: This includes limiting residents from congregating in social spaces, moving throughout the building or keeping them in their rooms; dedicated staff to serve residents who are infected or may be at higher risk, wearing of masks, goggles and face shields in resident areas, staff and resident daily monitoring of symptoms, meals delivered to rooms, disinfecting twice a day of high traffic areas and surfaces, disinfecting hallways and resident rooms as needed and following other recommendations from CDC and MDH.