May 15, 2020
Dear Pleasantview Care Center Team Member,
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact all aspects of our work and personal lives. You have done an incredible job of minimizing and containing the risk to our residents, who are a very vulnerable population. Your dedication to infection control protocols, masking and hand hygiene has absolutely saved lives.
As a team, we have been working on a long-term plan to continue to provide safe and secure environments for our staff and residents. Up to this point, the plan at Pleasantview has been focused on “the bubble” on our first-floor dementia unit. Because of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in nursing homes, the Ohio Department of Health has approved a new unit designation that will allow us to move the entire bubble set up to the secluded third floor of Legacy Place Parma where it can be entirely self-contained.
The ability to treat these residents in one self-contained spot has many benefits for the staff and residents including:
- This unit will be completely separate from the rest of the building, reducing the risk of viral spread to the staff and residents at Pleasantview by isolating on a separate floor.
- Optimize personal protective equipment (PPE) use. Prior to this designated unit option from the state, if we had a positive case in “the bubble,” every staff member in the facility would have to be in full body PPE at all times (hair cover, coveralls/hazmat suit, face shield, foot covers, etc.). With this third-floor set-up, full PPE will only be required on the third floor COVID-19 unit.
- If a current Pleasantview resident tests positive for COVID-19 there would be an immediate transfer from the nursing home directly onto the 3rd floor of the assisted living reducing the risk of spread in the nursing home. In addition, this unit could also be used for positive residents to reduce the spread from other Legacy facilities.
Every day-to-day detail has been considered and planned to be as safe as possible, including separate access points, deliveries, meals, and environmental sanitation.
- This will be a completely dedicated staff to this unit. Please rest assured that staffing on this unit will be on a strictly volunteer basis, and we will be recruiting for interested staff.
- Hourly wages offered will be higher than our standard rate because of the nature of the unit.
- Full and complete PPE will be provided for all staff on this unit.
- All staff on the third floor will have a space to sanitize and/or shower before leaving the facility, which helps protect their homes and their families.
- Using the third floor for these residents will help ensure other areas of the facility are not at risk for cross-contamination. The physical layout of the third floor allows for separate and dedicated entrance and exit points by programming the elevators appropriately.
Over the next few days and weeks, you will be hearing more about this separate unit and the services we are able to provide. Once an employee has worked on this unit, he or she will not be scheduled to work in the nursing home or other floors of the assisted living.
Together with your help, we have done our very best to protect the safety and well being of our staff and residents as we continue through this pandemic. This unit is the next step in that mission, and we are proud that we have the space and equipment to accommodate this model at Pleasantview Care Center’s Assisted Living.
If you have any questions about this unit or would like details on position availability, please contact either of us anytime.
Thank you,
Wioleta Findley, LNHA Emily Mahnen, RN
Administrator Director of Nursing
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