Friendship Village Senior Services’ Update and Response to COVID-19 as of Friday, April 17, 2020
Dear Friends, Residents and Families of Friendship Village:
Despite being a rainy, cool morning from Friendship Village on this Friday, April 17, 2020, our team is doing great things for our Residents.
While we acknowledge that our Chesterfield skilled nursing facility currently has a small number of COVID-19-positive Residents, we have decided to take this bull by the horns and do something different for our affected Residents.
We’re Creating a new World-Class COVID Care Center
Once you have it, you have it. We’re working on programs today that will bring our coronavirus-positive skilled nursing facility Residents, who don’t require hospitalization, into a specialized COVID unit, designed to deliver world class care. Today, we are creating specialized care teams with best practice social programs for COVID Residents who can benefit from activities that have been severely restricted the past several weeks.
Of course, we continue to do everything possible to prevent the spread of the virus among our uninfected population with care teams dedicated to keeping them healthy; that work continues full steam ahead.
But for those who have it, we’re doing more.
We are consolidating COVID-19-positive Residents into a newly-established “COVID Care Center”, or CCC. Within the CCC, we are bringing high-level clinical staff, some of whom may have been displaced in other jobs (nurse practitioners, physician assistants, etc.) to provide an exceptional level of care for this special group of Residents. We are establishing social programs that will re-engage and keep them engaged as a group, while maintaining social distancing. Our Chaplains and Spiritual Care Teams will provide a robust program that will interact with these Residents virtually. We are moving forward with virtual care options that will link these Residents to local physicians, as necessary. Quarantining together with a cohort may yield greater results due to heightened engagement and laser focused support measures needed to beat back COVID-19.
Our intent is to end the isolation, elevate clinical attention above standard protocols, take the quality of life up a few notches, and make life as a COVID-19 Resident more interesting, engaging and enjoyable. Once you have it, you have it. We’re going to embrace it and do more with it.
As for the rest of our Residents at all levels of care in our Villages, our sharp, caring and conscientious teams continue to provide evidence-based care and services as they always have.
We’re doing it, together.
As always, thank you all for your continued prayers. We continually ask our Lord Jesus Christ to enable us to do our best to fend off the COVID-19 coronavirus and to maintain the safety and protection of our Residents and staff.