Dear Residents and Families of The Cardinal,
We would like to provide everyone with an update on our current status as it relates to COVID-19. We appreciate your continued support over the past few weeks and thank you for your participation in our testing efforts on Monday. We are happy to report that almost all of our residents in Independent Living were tested this week and most of the results are in and thus far, all are negative. In addition to our IL resident test results, all 3rd party essential caregivers’ test results have been negative this week.
Yesterday, we had another assisted living resident test positive for COVID-19 and this resident is currently isolating in their apartment. Unfortunately, because of this new case, we will continue to remain in “outbreak” status in our Pines Healthcare Center through February 14th. We are hopeful that we will not have any more cases and we can move out of outbreak status on the 14th.
We are also very saddened to inform you that an assisted living resident passed away yesterday afternoon due to complications from COVID-19. This is The Cardinal’s first loss in the community due to this virus and we are heartbroken by this loss. We offer our sincere condolences and heartfelt prayers to the resident’s family and to the associates caring for this resident during this difficult time.
We will continue to test all healthcare associates and residents twice a week for the foreseeable future. Testing will occur on Mondays and Thursdays for these individuals. This week, aside from the one positive result in assisted living, all other test results have been negative. We are also making operational changes in our healthcare center to include more frequent fogging and sanitizing during every shift.
We will continue to individually test all Independent Living residents for at least one more week. We ask all IL residents to report to the Art Studio on Monday, January 25th for testing. All remaining IL resident test results should be in today and if all continue to be negative, we will resume small group programming on Friday. We will reopen The Pub after our second vaccination clinic on Wednesday, February 3rd.
The schedule for the vaccine clinic on February 2nd is almost complete. Appointment times will be delivered to resident doors by Friday of this week. All residents must complete the vaccination consent form again and further instructions on how to complete this step will be forthcoming. We want our clinic to run as smoothly as it did on January 5th and to accomplish this goal, we will ask that all consent forms are completed in advance. If you are receiving your second dose, CVS will not need
copies of your insurance cards. They already have this information on file. Stay tuned for more information soon.
It looks like we will be able to offer the vaccine to some of our 3rd party, essential caregivers. We are starting a waitlist at the front desk for any caregiver who may be interested. If you are an essential caregiver providing services to a resident at The Cardinal and would like to receive the vaccine, please call the front desk to be placed on the waitlist. We ask residents and family members to help us communicate this information to their private duty caregivers. We will call those selected at the end of next week to confirm their appointment time.
Please know that our love for our residents and our commitment to their health and safety remains the primary force behind the decisions being made and actions being taken here at the community. We appreciate your continued support and compliance with our COVID-19 protocols to keep our residents and associate as safe and healthy as possible. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and together we will get through this!
Sincerely,
Tom Ford, Executive Director
Mary Casey, Assistant Executive Director