Dear Sunrise residents, family and friends,
This is our weekly COVID update for the nursing and assisted living at Sunrise Retirement Community.
Sunrise currently does not have any residents or staff who have tested positive for COVID. We officially passed 28 days since our last reported infection and are not in outbreak status! This is a major milestone for our community.
Sunrise will continue surveillance testing of residents and staff at the rate recommended by CMS. As long as the county positivity is under 10%, Sunrise will test residents and vaccinated staff members one time per week. Unvaccinated staff members will be required to test twice a week. If there are any suspicions of illness, additional testing will be performed. Staff continue to regularly monitor residents for any signs or symptoms of illness.
At this time CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) has not made any changes to the regulations regarding visitation. We will be sure to let you know if there are changes to the CMS guidance that will change our visitation policy.
Sunrise began our new visitation plan on Monday, February 22. It was wonderful for our residents to have the opportunity to be with family and friends! Please remember to help us keep COVID out by complying with the testing requirements, all facets of the visitation policy and your own personal interactions in the community if you are planning to be a visitor at Sunrise. If we have even 1 positive resident will have to return to “outbreak” for testing and visitation purposes.
There are some visitors who have not been compliant with the visiting policy for Sunrise. Any guest that cannot or refuses to comply with the policy – specifically around mask wearing – will be asked to leave and will not be able to schedule future visits. I cannot stress the importance of this enough! Sunrise was sited during an infection control survey because a guest was seen (in a resident room) without their mask on properly. It is the responsibility of Sunrise staff to ensure that our facility and all guests here are complying with the established policy & we appreciate your cooperation with this very important regulation.
Sunrise Retirement Community will continue to enforce mask wearing for all staff members, visitors, contractors, and residents (as tolerated, when out of their own room). The nursing facility’s regulations have not been relaxed and mask wearing is still recommended for all congregate settings in order to minimize the potential spread of the coronavirus. Other mitigation efforts in both nursing & assisted living include staff screening at the beginning and end of shift for exposure, symptoms and temperature; wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE); increased cleaning & disinfecting of surfaces throughout the building; and regular COVID surveillance testing of staff members and residents.
Thank you for your continued support, as we are continually humbled by the gratitude that so many of your express to our team!
Sincerely,
Hallie Salmen, CEO