Dear Residents, Associates, and Family Members of Drake Terrace:
This is my first week and first time sharing an update letter as the Executive Director of Drake Terrace. I want to thank everyone for the warm welcome, candid conversations, and shared insights I have received from many of you. As I transition into this role, it is my goal to begin with building relationships and seeking to understand your goals, needs and preferences to guide my work as your community leader. To that end I was thankful to meet with many residents in our “Meet and Greet” sessions earlier this week, become acquainted with our Resident Association President Katie Taggart and accompany our dining team on a meal delivery as another way to meet residents and associates. I look forward to more opportunities to meet those I have missed and to get to know everyone on a more personal level.
Our last COVID-19 surveillance testing was completed on Saturday 8/22. The purpose of surveillance testing is to help us quickly identify, respond to and contain any new cases of COVID-19. We have a total of two active cases identified from this testing, one associate from dining and another from our assisted living department. Both associates are asymptomatic, have been placed off work and will return once cleared. As a reminder, we will complete weekly testing of all associates and residents until we are clear two weeks in a row at which point we will return to testing 25% of our team and residents weekly.
We have already put to work some of your suggestions! Some of you shared that you have trouble reading the information on the Wellness Activity calendars. Going forward the activity calendars will be printed in larger font for your viewing ease. Additionally, we are revising our fitness room hours based on your feedback and will post the open hours for appointments (one person at a time) on the next Wellness Activity notice. Several residents shared that it can be challenging to keep up with safety protocols and changes related to COVID-19 when these updates are embedded in letters with other information. In response to this concern, we have created a separate document, the “Drake Terrace COVID-19 Response Guidelines” designed to help you review, follow, and revisit day to day guidelines related to COVID-19 containment. While this document is not a complete list of all things Drake Terrace has implemented or maintains to keep our community safe, rather, it is a quick reference guide to protocols residents and family members are asked to follow. As conditions and operating guidance change, we will update the document, note the version update, and redistribute this guide. I hope you will find this new guide to be helpful.
Thank you for helping us keep the community and each other safe by all doing our part!
Sincerely,
Ricardo Romero
Executive Director