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COVID 19 Facility Update

2/13/2023

We have identified COVID in the facility. Visits may continue. Masks must be worn by all staff and visitors. Healthcare workers who are positive shall remain away from the facility until criteria to end quarantine has been met. Residents who test positive shall remain in their rooms until criteria to end quarantine has been met.

 

07/03/2022

All identified cases of COVID have resolved.

5/19/2022

Today we had a resident test positive for COVID19.  Per regulatory guidance, we did surveillance testing on all of our other residents as well as all staff. Through that surveillance testing, we have identified several more resident cases and some staff cases.  Symptoms are predominantly mild at present time. We are working diligently with our facility medical director on treatment plans. Visitation can continue per usual. Visitors need to continue to screen in upon entry and wear a mask. N95 masks are recommended for visits with positive residents.

1/24/2022

Two more staff members have tested positive. All other staff and residents tested and are negative

1/17/2022

One resident has tested positive today. Surveillance testing revealed five more positive residents and four positive staff. The positive residents have been isolated with dedicated staff.

1/7/2021

One staff member has tested positive for COVID19. All other residents and staff tested are negative.

11/4/2021

One staff member has tested positive for COVID19. All other residents and staff tested are negative.

10/10/2021

One staff member has tested positive for COVID19 today. All other residents and staff are negative.

8/10/2021

We wanted to reach out and let everyone know that we had an employee test positive for COVID-19 yesterday. All other employees and residents have been tested and are negative.

Families

Visits Update 7/13/2021

Who isn’t loving this weather right now! I know we were yesterday; our fantastic dietary manager Missy and her husband, John, brought over their amazing miniature donkey Petey and two friendly little alpacas. One’s name was Rowdy, and he sure loved his apples! Anyways, let’s get back to the point of this letter.

 

With several people starting to visit (including our friends Pete and Rowdy), I thought it would be a great time to review our visitation guidance.

 

Please make sure you allow our staff to screen you in and out!

 

Outdoor visits generally pose a lower risk of transmission due to increased space and airflow. Therefore, visits should be hosted outdoors whenever practicable. However, weather considerations (e.g., inclement weather, excessively hot or cold temperatures, poor air quality) or an individual resident’s health status (e.g., medical condition(s), COVID-19 status, quarantine status) may hinder outdoor visits. For outdoor visits on the Main Unit, we have a large patio area located at the front of the building. If you look around, you will find a few pieces of refinished antique furniture that was refurbished by our business office manager Deb Bishop. As for our Atrium outdoor visits, they can be held in our beautiful courtyard as usual. Please remember, even if you are outside, you still want to follow all appropriate infection control and prevention practices whenever possible.

 

We want to ask that our family members be mindful of mealtimes. Many of our residents require a special diet or assistance. It makes it much harder on the staff and your loved one if we have several people coming and going during meal times. It can also make it harder for your loved one to get their max nutrition if their mealtimes are getting interrupted.

 

You are no longer required to schedule a visit to meet with your loved one! However, if you do not schedule a visit, please keep in mind that someone else might have scheduled a visit with your loved one, they may have just got done with an activity, or they might have just laid down for a nap. If you can at least call ahead, this is always a great idea. If you can’t, no worries, but please remember it will probably take some time to get your loved one ready to see you.

 

Kathy will now be issuing Happy Siesta COVID-19 vaccine verification cards! These cards will now allow you to attend activities with your loved ones!

Things you must know!

  • Wear a well-fitted mask
  • Be socially distanced from other residents whenever possible.
  • Be screened in and out
  • Have been symptom-free for at least 14 days and has not had direct exposure to COVID-19
  • All family members are required to sign a Core Principles of Infection Form.
  • Your Happy Siesta Vaccine Card must be on you at all times if you plan to be out in the common areas of the facility. If you do not have it on you, you may be asked to leave.
  • Replacement cards will cost you $3.00
  • Public restrooms are available

We are excited to announce that if you are fully vaccinated that you will be allowed to eat with your loved one again! Just to be on the safe side, we ask that you limit your party to one guest. Make reservations at least 48 hours in advance.

  • Social distance from other patients whenever possible
  • Wear a well-fitting mask when you are not eating or drinking
  • Sanitize often
  • appointments are on a first-come, first-serve basis (meals are limited)
  • We ask that you make a $5.00 donation for a meal and offer meal punch tickets in the business office. They are available Monday through Friday. Meal tickets can be ordered in $25 increments.

3/11/2021 1:51pm-

Happy Siesta Health Care Centers New Visitation Practice

  • All visits must be scheduled at least 48 hours in advance.
    • Please call (712) 786-1117 for an appointment
  • All visitors should park in our East parking lot across from the school
  • Please call when you arrive at the facility and let the charge nurse know you are here.
  • Please use the front door. Atrium Family Members- Please use the Atrium door. This door is unlocked by the nurse at 6 am and is locked by the nurse at 6 pm.
  • A Happy Siesta employee will screen you in and out of our facility. Atrium family members, please walk up to the Atrium and ring the doorbell outside of the wooden double doors to be screened in.
  • Masks are required at all times when you are in the facility. Mask needs to be well-fitted and cover your nose and mouth.
  • If you are vaccinated and would be willing to share your immunization card with us that would be greatly appreciated. This helps us make critical decisions that impact your loved one. Please put your loved one’s name on the top of the copy!
  • Visitors should only be out in the hallways when they are entering and exiting the facility. If you need assistance, please use the call light cord located in the resident’s room.
  • A max of three visitors at one time for up to one hour.

Changes

  • Eye protection will be provided to you upon request but is no longer required.
  • If your loved one is fully vaccinated, you can now hug and hold hands with them as long as they have a well-fitting face mask (surgical mask that we provide) that covers their mouth and nose. They also need to wash their hands or use hand sanitizer before and after the visit or close contact.
  • The majority of our patients now have a private room! Your visits are no longer required to take place in the visitation room if your loved one has a private room. You are welcome to join your loved one in their room for your visit.
  • All visitors are allowed as long as they can wear a surgical mask appropriately! Please, please, please stay home if any member of your party is not feeling well.

If a resident tests positive for COVID-19 all visits may be suspended until the administration and or the local department of public health feels it is safe for the community and the patients to re-open. If you do not feel well, have been around anyone who does not feel well, have been exposed to covid-19, or tested positive for covid-19 please notify the nurse before entering the facility.  

3/9/2021 10:46- Our visits are going so well! It has been so nice getting to meet everyone! We have a few things we would like to go over….

  • The PPE that you wear during your visit is not only for the protection of your loved ones but it is also for the protection of the other residents and staff. Some of our new admission or new patients will be getting their first vaccine on admission to Happy Siesta. Many of our new patients did not have access to the vaccine prior to coming to Happy Siesta. We also have new staff who were not eligible to receive the vaccine prior to working at Happy Siesta.
  • Please do not drive on the grass or sidewalks, this is a safety issue. If you have personal items that you need help with, please call the facility for assistance at (712) 786-1117.
  • If you bring it food it needs to be in a sealed disposable container with a date on it. If our housekeeping staff cannot find a date on an item, it will probably get thrown away for safety reasons.
  • We would like to highly encourage our family members to bring a candy bowl for your loved one of individually packaged candies he or she might like if it is safe for your loved one. Please feel free to bring your loved ones on a meal! You cannot eat with them (you have to wear a mask) but I am sure they would love something homemade.
  • We are going to start van rides again! As Sammy has to travel over to the clinic and back, she will be taking patients with her that have been deemed safe to ride with.
  • We will be starting up church services again! If you know of someone who would like to provide services one on one with your loved one or in a group setting. Please call Sammy to arrange this!
  • Our residents are starting to venture outside again to enjoy the nice weather. Please be mindful of the 6-foot rule as you are entering the facility. If you cannot get around a resident without breaching the 6-foot rule, please call the facility for assistance.
  • With our weekend weather looking pretty poor, we will plan to try to start some kind of outside visits again soon but not this week.

 

2/23/2021 2:36 pm- Our county positivity rates are now at 7%! We plan to open up for visits on Thursday the 25th! These Open Visits will be much more relaxed than they have been in the past. Please feel free to call (712) 786-1117 and ask for the nurse or email jlist@happysiesta.com (Main) or activitydept@happysiesta.com (Atrium) to schedule a visit.

  • All visits need to be scheduled at least 48 hours in advance Monday through Friday. Email responses will be sent Monday through Friday between 9 am and 4 pm. No email responses will be sent on holidays.
  • Please call when you get to the facility (712) 786-1117 and ask for the charge nurse in the area where your loved one is located (Main Unit or Atrium)
  • A member of our staff will screen you in and out of the facility. Main Unit family members will need to enter through the therapy doors. Atrium family visits will need to enter through the Atrium doors. Atrium visitors should park at the northeast corner of the facility.
  • We will provide you and your guest with a surgical face mask and a face shield. This cannot be removed during the visit.
  • A member of our staff will assist you to and from the designated room
  • If you need assistance, please call the facility or pull the call light in the room you are in – DO NOT LEAVE THE DESIGNATED ROOM
  • Visits will only be scheduled on odd hours.
  • There will be no set visiting hours, we just ask that everyone be mindful of meal times and that most of our residents like to go to bed around 7 pm
  • Extended family and friends are allowed- we ask if at all possible, please wait to invite extended loved ones. We have two rooms and fifty residents. We would really like to see spouses and immediate family members see their loved ones right away.  We ask that extended family waits a month to start visiting if at all possible.
  • We highly encourage that no one under the age of 18 visits right now. Several of our patients are experiencing mixed emotions about family visits. They are excited to see you guys again but they are also still terrified of the virus. We want to allow children as soon as possible but we would also like this to be a transition. No one under the age of two is allowed.
  • Please be patient with us as we learn from these visits. Each new stepping stone has it challenges :).

Public restrooms will not be provided during visits

2/17/2021 2:54 pm- We are excited to announce that our county positivity has dropped below 10%!!!!! We are at 9.2%. We have started our two-week count down to start allowing indoor visits again!!!!! We still plan to have scheduled visits and we will have a visiting room but we are one step closer! As our county positivity rates continue to drop our rules become less and less strict.

2/15/21 8:49 am-

We are excited to announce that everyone has recovered and is doing well!

We are very fortunate that our facility was one of the first nursing homes to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. As of today, we have had over 80% of our population agree to get the vaccine. Pfizer studies are showing that there is a 52% effectiveness after the first dose and a 95% effectiveness after the second dose. Pfizer and our medical team have also advised us that our patients will not have full antibodies for at least 3 weeks (21 days) after their second vaccine. This means that most of our patients should have 95% effectiveness to the virus around the 19th of February.

This news triggers a lot of questions from our staff, from our patients, and from ourselves. If most of our patients are vaccinated why are we not allowing visits yet? This question is not a simple one for us. One thing that we have to keep in mind is that we pushed extremely hard to vaccinate everyone in the facility at our first vaccine clinic. We had a few patients that could not receive the vaccine due to medical reasons. We want to make sure that all the patients who wanted to receive the vaccine before we start allowing visitors have the opportunity. We received our  COVID-19 vaccines about a week or two ahead of several other facilities. This means that other nursing homes just received their 1st vaccine and as an industry, we won’t start to see any discussions or changes for at least three weeks. Our regulatory body also says that we should not be allowed visits yet. Our county positivity rate has to be below 10% for a minimum of two weeks before we can allow visitors again. You can find this rule and many others here: https://www.cms.gov/medicareprovider-