Every day, there are new developments and updates regarding COVID-19. It can be overwhelming keep track of everything, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has one important recommendation: Act as if the virus is already in your community. Toward that end, take a few steps:
- Take aggressive efforts to keep residents, visitors, and other health personnel healthy.
- Restrict visitors and nonessential health personnel, practice social distancing of residents, communicate regularly with residents and families, educate your teams about the signs and symptoms of COVID-19, communicate with the local health department, and assess supply/personal protective equipment inventories.
- Create a list of staff and others who enter the facility and create a plan about how the facility may limit or stop visits.
- Cancel all group activities and communal dining. Hold staff meetings via video or phone conferencing.
- Talk to and educate staff about how to preserve supplies.
Elsewhere, there are other things you can do to support your teams. For instance, consider having a food bank for workers who are adversely affected financially; make Employee Assistance Programs and counseling readily available for those who want/need them.
