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Nursing homes take extra precautions against the coronavirus

T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Continuing Healthcare at Forest Hill is among the facilities complying with state directives to restrict visitors and increase sanitary measures to stop the spread of coronavirus among the vulnerable population.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The elderly are among those vulnerable to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, and the state issued new directives Thursday to care facilities in the interest of safety.

“From what I understand, they’re restricting visitors to try and prevent someone from bringing the COVID into the nursing homes. Again trying to control any disease transmission,” Robert Sproul, Belmont County deputy health commissioner and a member of the local Coronavirus Task Force, said. “They’re doing extra cleaning, and they’re monitoring the staff.”

He said the directive and all new releases is available on coronavirus.ohio.gov.

The Times Leader reached out to various nursing facilities in the area to find out how they are responding.

Public relations manager Chelsea O’Brien of Bellaire Country Club Retirement Center said the facility is complying and precautions are in place.

“Resident safety is a top priority for Country Club. Every resident and family should have a clean, safe living environment, and we’re doing everything we can to ensure that. We’ve been in close contact with our local and state health departments as well as the (Centers for Disease Control) to stay up-to-date on the information to prevent and manage the spread of it. We’re relying on local, state and federal resources to help prevent the spread of disease.”

They have also been in contact with the Ohio Health Care Association.

She said they have updated sanitary safety measures and the emergency disaster communications plan.

“We have reinforced to our staff that anyone who is sick should stay home. We are following the same basic procedures that we use during flu season such as specific hand-washing … hand sanitizers, covering coughs,” she said.

“We are excluding all contractors and visitors including family members from our facility at this time,” she said. :We are setting up in our facility … a way for family members to communicate with their residents through Skype and Face-Time and social media. … All of our staff is being screened every time they enter our facility on every shift.”

She said exceptions are being made for visitors attending end-of-life stages such as hospice.

“But again we’re screening those residents’ visitors, and that’s the only exception we’re making at this time.”

The campus holds a maximum of 100 residents.

“The Department of Health, the Department of Aging has issued different preventive measures,” Jamie Helmick, executive director at Walton Retirement Home in Barnesville said. “We did just get the initiative this morning from the state that all residential-type care facilities also post restrictions of access and continue with infection control practices as is standard. … Today we got the instruction at the state level to actually restrict even at the residential care facility level. … We have implemented those emergency procedures.”

“At this time, we have not had any cases of COVID-19, the illness that results from coronavirus, in any of our facilities. But we are on guard. We’ve been staying in close touch with the federal authorities overseeing and providing the latest guidance on the coronavirus threat, as well as working with the state of Ohio and county health departments where we have facilities,” Mark Morley, vice president of operations, Continuing Healthcare Solutions of Shadyside, said.

“We’re moving fast to react to and follow the latest guidelines. So, for example, we’ve begun conducting health screenings for every employee as they enter one of our facilities. We’re also screening all of our residents. We’ve asked the families and other loved ones of our residents and all of our visitors to please understand as we’ve begun strictly restricting visitation to our facilities.”

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