HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Americare operates Senior Living, Assisted Living, Skilled Nursing and Memory Care across 144 communities in Missouri, Kansas, Tennessee, Illinois, and Mississippi, including Waldron Place in Hutchinson.
In early March, when the signs of the COVID-19 pandemic were just beginning, Americare made the investments that have allowed their residents to stay connected with family and friends, even once quarantine procedures were required.
On March 13, all outside visitors to its facilities were discontinued and all group gatherings stopped. Americare believed that even though it was necessary to shut out visitors, that did not have to mean shutting down social and informational connections.
That meant an extensive investment in equipment, training and learning among staff and residents and families to ensure that residents did not feel isolated or cut off, and that families could feel connected and informed. It also meant an investment in training, protocols and tracking to stay ahead of potential issues across the company.
Among the investments were:
• iPads shipped to every community for resident use and training of staff to help residents keep in touch with loved ones.
• “Join Me” accounts for residents and families.
• Extra training for the facility Lifestyle Teams on various communications.
• Activity software on iPads and computers so residents can be physically active, mentally active and engaged through brain games and exercises.
• Enabling staff remote access to all property systems to provide care and help properties creating less need for property visits.
• Set up eFax capabilities to replace the multi-function device (print, scan, fax, copy) that is typically used by staff and residents thus eliminating potential cross contamination between non-COVID and COVID areas.
• Gathered emails for all resident family members for updates.
• Email protocols established and activated in any community with a COVID case to keep everyone informed (did not activate where there was no activity so as not to create alarm).
• Creation of an “our community and COVID” channel for updates to families online in communities with COVID activity.
• Developed a series of surveys and reports so the company and properties could see the impact/progression of the virus, staffing needs, and PPE availability.This snapshot allowed learnings from one community to be shared with others and ensured availability of people and equipment where needed when needed.
• An aggressive local media outreach to ensure that when there was a COVID issue at a property, the media would have the facts and no need to bother staff or families, thus protecting everyone.
• Extensive use of property level social media to give a window into the facility that helps ease the minds of families outside.
The actual medical equipment used was also upgraded for such items as vital signs monitoring so that taking vital signs and uploading them into systems was easier. This created more accessible data that gave a consolidated view for monitoring vitals and spotting areas of concern or trends in advance so that testing, treatment, and even quarantine decisions could be made faster and ahead of the virus’ potential progression.
“We believe the investments in technology made at the beginning of the pandemic and as we progressed through the months created an environment of communication to benefit the physical and mental health of residents and families, as well as creating lifestyle opportunities to keep residents engaged during this difficult time,” said Patricia Cokingtin, Senior Vice President of Americare. “In addition, our investments in staff training, software and database management put us in a position to identify issues and even potential issues and react to them in terms of supplies, personnel and evasive actions that we believe kept the virus contained within or even away from communities.”
For more information on how Americare facilities are addressing the coronavirus pandemic please visit https://www.americareusa.net/coronavirus.