Friendship Village Senior Services’ Update and Response to COVID-19 as of Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Dear Friends, Residents and Families of Friendship Village:
It’s a beautiful, sunny morning at Friendship Village on this Wednesday, April 15, 2020! We wish all of you a safe and happy day, well-spent. A little walk in the sunshine might be in order (practicing proper social distancing, of course)!
Our loyal and dedicated staff continue to do everything they can to provide the best care possible to our Residents in our independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities. Much is being done to keep them entertained, informed, engaged, well-fed, and healthy!
As you would expect of Friendship Village, our team is engaged in a constant effort to be proactive and to detect signs of the coronavirus as early as possible so that we can intervene at the soonest possible time to care-for and protect our Residents and staff. To do this, Friendship Village has lowered the threshold for testing than what is normally prescribed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). We test Residents when we suspect anything is happening with the Resident, even if full symptoms are not yet apparent. This proactive, earlier-detection process has resulted in the identification of two additional COVID-19-positive Residents in our Chesterfield skilled nursing facility who have been caught very early in the cycle. One was so early that the initial test was negative but, when we sent a second test a couple of days later, the test came back positive. In the meantime, the Resident was fully quarantined by our staff as we presumed them to be positive.
Our teams are suited-up with full personal protective equipment (PPE) in the identified units, from head to toe. We have no shortage of the appropriate PPE and we are using it. We continue to do everything possible to protect staff as well as Residents. No truer words were ever spoken than “Heroes Work Here!” Without question, the work is stressful, but spirits are high.
Thank you all for your continued prayers as 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.
We need and gladly accept donations of face masks of both the clinical and/or hand-made washable cloth types. We will put them to immediate and good use. Just drop them off at the door!
The Friendship Village Team