Weekly Update May 27, 2022
May 27, 2022
To: Solheim Employees, Residents, Family Members and Stakeholders
From: Sam Oden, CEO of Solheim Senior Community
Let Memorial Day be a day to count our blessings and remember those who served to protect our country and our freedom. We are forever grateful for the ultimate sacrifice of those who died for the United States of America. May their courage and dedication never be forgotten.
As a reminder our Annual Meeting of the Corporation is scheduled for Sunday June 5th at 4pm. Once again, this year, our Annual Meeting will be held virtually. We will be presenting new Board Members for consideration to join our Solheim Board of Directors. By way of reminder: This meeting is a gathering of delegates from our ELCA church congregations and other interested parties. If you would like to join us for our Annual Meeting, please contact Tina Antypas to request a link through which you will be able to digitally access this (virtual) meeting.
I am pleased to announce that Gabby Guzman will be joining our team as our new Director of Dining Services beginning June 27th. In addition, I’m excited to announce our partnership with Morrison Living to help enhance our dining experience for our residents throughout our community. We’ll be sharing more updates in upcoming communications.
LA County DPH has mandated that all Skilled Nursing Facilities pause communal dining and group activities, and begin testing of all residents once weekly, and all staff twice weekly.
In addition, ALL Health Center (Skilled Nursing) visitors, including essential visitors who were previously exempt from all visitor testing requirements, should be tested for indoor visitation. We will continue to provide rapid antigen tests to all visitors until further notice, but due to the increase in testing requirements for Solheim staff and residents, we strongly encourage you to acquire your own over the counter tests. If you have not done so already, USPS is offering 8 free rapid antigen COVID-19 tests, and you can order yours at https://special.usps.com/testkits. Please note that all over the counter self-tests must be conducted in the presence of Solheim staff who can verify the test result belongs to the visitor and conducted on the appropriate date/time prior to visitation.
Our visitation guidelines remain the same as last week in our Residential, Assisted Living and Halvorson neighborhood, but Health Center visitations have changed slightly as described in this communication – (please be aware that we stop offering rapid tests at 4:30pm). If you come to visit after that time, we ask that you provide your own proof of a negative Covid-19 test result from within the past 48 hours. I sincerely thank you for your patience, as our guidelines will likely continue to evolve considering changing regulatory guidance. Our current visitation guidelines are:
All visitors in our Residential, Assisted and Memory Care levels of living on campus may visit indoors if the visitor is fully vaccinated OR provides proof of a negative PCR COVID-19 test result within 48 Hours, or a negative Antigen test within 24 hours.
·All GENERAL visitors in our Health Center (SNF) must provide one of the following prior to entering the facility for all indoor and in-room visits, REGARDLESS of vaccination status: a negative PCR COVID-19 test result within 48 Hours, or a negative Antigen test within 24 hours.
All ESSENTIAL visitors in our Health Center (SNF) must be tested twice weekly or provide proof of a negative PCR COVID-19 test result within 48 hours, or a negative Antigen test within 24 hours.
Testing is not required for OUTDOOR visitation.
Indoor visitors and visitors eligible for outdoor visitation must always wear a facemask during the visitation and physically distance themselves from facility staff and other residents and visitors that are not part of their group at all times during the visit.
Alternative communication such as phone calls, video calls, and online communication is always available.
As of today’s writing, we have one (1) new direct care staff and one (1) new resident in our Halvorson Memory Care Neighborhood who have tested positive for COVID-19. We will continue weekly testing of all residents and staff in Halvorson neighborhood, and visitation guidelines have not changed in our Residential and Assisted Living Campus and our Halvorson Memory Care.
If you have any specific questions, please direct them to Tina Antypas at 323 257-7518 X225 or tantypas@solheimsenior.org.