701 W. 6th Street
785-222-2574
785-222-9034

Powering Through The Pandemic

It has been one year since the pandemic of COVID-19 began and resulted in many restrictions to the nursing home. While it has been a difficult and challenging year for all, I want to express my appreciation to our family, residents, staff, vendors and community friends for their support and understanding. I am very pleased with how Locust Grove Village responded in navigating the many complexities of this year.

CMS, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is updating its visitation guidance. This comes as millions of vaccinations have been administered to nursing home residents and staff, and these vaccines have been shown to help prevent symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19). I cannot stress the importance in the greater community to support and receive vaccinations — it does make a difference. If I can be of any assistance in providing education materials related to the vaccinations, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

So.. what will continue to take place at LGV and is at the core of all our guidance is maintaining infection prevention practices. These core principles will continue for all visitors entering LGV:

  • Enter at the EAST side door for access control
  • Screening of all who enter the facility for signs and symptoms, including temperature checks, questions and observations about signs/symptoms. You will be denied access if you have had close contact with someone with COVID-19 infection in the prior 14 days (regardless of your vaccination status)
  • Hand Hygiene —
  • Mask covering mouth and nose
  • Social distancing at least six feet between persons
  • Cleaning/Disinfecting high touched surfaces in LGV
  • Staff and resident testing as required per guidance, (routine and outbreak)

Outdoor visitation is still the preferred visitation approach. With the spring season approaching, the outdoor porch areas are certainly an option for your visits.

Indoor visitation may continue and will now include visitors being allowed to the resident room.

However, there are some limitations that will continue with resident room visitation:

  1. Visitors will be limited to 4 at a time to the room.
  2.  Visitors will be escorted directly to the resident room by a staff member, once they are monitored in at the entrance.
  3. Visitation will still need to be scheduled — call AHEAD and set the time for your visit.
  4. There will be a limit of 2 visiting groups allowed in the nursing home at one time.
  5. Visitor movement is limited in the facility — direct to the resident room. Maintain social distance from other residents and staff. DO NOT gather in public areas/common rooms.
  6. If you need to access a restroom during your visit, you may use the resident room bath or go to the nearest public bathroom and return directly.
  7. Touching your loved one may take place, but they recommend performing hand hygiene and mask wearing.
  8. If you need a staff member or to visit with a nurse, please use the resident call light and wait for a response in the room by a staff person.

Staff routine testing will continue as required based on county positivity rates. This is reviewed each week.

If there is an outbreak (1 resident or staff new case of COVID) – we will have to close visitation until further testing can be accomplished.

We will begin implementing these new visitor guidelines as outlined above on Monday, March 15 at Locust Grove Village.

If you have questions about any of this information, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 785-222-2574.