Retirement centers aim to keep COVID-19 out and get visitors back in
JACKSON, Tenn. — Fighting coronavirus, retirement centers are still implementing good safety precautions.
One local facility, Alexandria Place, says the building is still on lock down, only allowing staff and residents inside. Staff must wear double masks and wash their hands as often as possible.
“The first thing the staff must do when entering the building is a wellness check that consists of the temperature. We also check the oxygen level and they have to answer a few questions, and this is done three times throughout their shift,” Alexandria Place Director of Nursing Lynn Yarbrough said.
Residents also have their vitals checked three times during a single shift. To ensure social distancing, residents eat alone at a disinfected table, and can not receive packages until staff properly cleans them.
If a resident tests positive, Alexandria Place creates a barrier separating all residents.
“We set it up like it’s two buildings in one, we couldn’t go across the barrier. We had a green team which on the side where nobody had COVID, and then a red team which is where the COVID hall is,” Yarbrough said.
Yarbrough credits the success of no current cases to safety precautions.
“I definitely think it’s having all of the cleaning and disinfecting and the double masks, the hand washing, the cleanliness I think is the clue to it, because you know we went through it and we survived we had it didn’t spread,” Yarbrough says.
With no new cases in the past 28 days, people are finally able to potentially visit their loved ones.
Laurelwood Healthcare Center and Alexandria Place have only reported 3 cases, and plan to reopen to visitation early October.
Laurelwood Administrator, Dianne Brown, says they have implemented good screening techniques and go over information sent from the hospital often.
“We do have policies and procedures in place that have come down from the corporate that we are following, so we have outdoor tents that will be put up and then we have a limitation on the number of visitors per day,” Brown said.
Visitors and residents will still remain six feet apart, wear masks, and participate in the normal screening.
“They want to see their family. Even being outside being six feet apart, they are okay with that because at least they get to see their son, daughter, niece, nephew or whomever comes to visit, so they are extremely excited,” Brown said.
WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News also reached out to Cades Center, Mission Convalescent Home, and Regency Retirement Village of Jackson but are still waiting to hear back from them.
