Page 17 - Healthcare News Nov_Dec, 2020

KEEPING YOUR LOVED ONES SAFE DURING COVID-19 AND EVERY DAY.
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SENIOR LIVING CONT’D Safe at Home
Senior-living Communities Stay Strong Against Coronavirus
By MARK MORRIS
Cheryl Moran says she increased staffers’ hours and pay to make sure they worked only at the Atrium during the pandemic.
Beth Cardillo said the arrival of CO- VID-19 caused a “wildfire effect.”
As executive director of Armbrook Vil- lage, a senior-living community in West- field that offers independent and assisted living, as well as memory care, Cardillo said the first days of the pandemic created huge challenges for healthcare profession- als who faced major decisions while work- ing with limited information.
For example, hospitals were only admit- ting COVID-positive patients if they had a fever and showed respiratory symptoms. Some seniors at Armbrook, however, were testing positive but manifesting different symptoms.
“We had someone who tested COVID- positive, but he didn’t have a fever or a re- spiratory problem,” she said. “He felt weak, fatigued, and he almost passed out.”
“At that time, no one knew there were a host of other symptoms. It’s nobody’s fault because nobody knew.”
a fever or respiratory symptoms.
“At that time, no one knew there were a host of other symptoms,” she said. “It’s
nobody’s fault because nobody knew.” Cardillo informed Baystate Medical Cen-
ter about residents who showed different symptoms for the coronavi-
rus, and the hospital quickly sent a team of specialists in infectious disease and emer- gency medicine to Armbrook to further examine these cases.
“Incidents like this were happening all over the coun- try,” Cardillo said. “It’s how we learned that people can manifest other symptoms but still have the coronavi- rus.”
Cheryl Moran says she increased staffers’ hours and pay to make sure they worked only
at the Atrium during the pandemic.
improved and safety guidelines were implemented across the U.S., senior-living facilities that already had sanitizing and infection protocols in place increased their efforts to battle the spread of coronavirus.
Emily Tamilio, Corporate Marketing director for Rockridge Retirement Com- munity in Northampton, said her complex revamped its already-strong infection- control policies before the state went into lockdown. “We’ve redoubled our protocols and to make sure all our staff is up to date on proper infection control, hand washing, and strict sanitization procedures.”
Meanwhile, at Atrium at Cardinal Drive in Agawam — an assisted-living facility exclusively for people with memory loss — Executive Director Cheryl Moran imposed strict screening procedures to keep resi- dents and staff safe, such as requiring all outside agencies to get her approval before they could enter the facility.
In the caregiving community, it’s not unusual for workers at one assisted-living facility to take a second part-time job at
Cardillo’s call for an EMT to transport the positive-testing resident to the hospi- tal was met with disappointment when
she was told the hospital would not admit anyone for the coronavirus unless they had
Similarly, at the beginning of the pan- demic, health officials were not encourag- ing everyone to wear masks; later, with better information, they shifted course. As information on all aspects of COVID-19
BETH CARDILLO