Weekly Update June 25, 2021
June 25, 2021
To: Solheim Employees, Residents, Family Members and Stakeholders
From: Sam Oden, CEO of Solheim Senior Community
Renovations of the Sensory Garden and other outdoor spaces continue, and we also continue to thank you for your patience as these projects move forward. We are very excited to see work beginning on the Patio on the west side of campus this week. Next week we will have limited visitor parking in our visitor parking lot. I understand parking is already tight, but we are looking forward to seeing the results and to have some refreshed outdoor spaces for our residents and families to enjoy later this Summer! The breezeway and the hallway leading to the mailboxes after the dining room will be limited only to staff next week, until 5 p.m. Residents can pick up their mail after 5 p.m. Thank you for your understanding.
In order to enhance the dining experience for our residents in our Health Center, we will be implementing a new “tray-less” program where residents’ food will be plated and served fresh in the dining room. This will help to ensure that each resident’s food is served hot and/or fresh as soon as they are seated and ready to eat. We will begin implementing this program for lunch starting July 6th, and our goal is to implement it for all 3 meals by October.
As I have been mentioning, with all the media coverage of the June 15th “re-opening” of California, I’m sure you’re wondering how this landmark affects Solheim. Although I certainly share everyone’s excitement about this wonderful milestone in our collective process of slowly and carefully “returning to normal,” I want to take the opportunity to remind everyone that as a dedicated senior living community, Solheim represents a special case: We are highly regulated by several different agencies, and a number of them have not yet provided guidance on how and when we should change our guidelines. Therefore, for the time being, we will be continuing to follow all of the same suggested practices as we have been following (see below)—with the sole exception that you no longer need to schedule your visits with Kathy Rust.
Subject to that one exception, for visitations throughout campus—from our Health Center, to our Residential and Assisted Living Campus, to our Halvorson Memory Care Neighborhood—we still ask for your continued partnership and diligence in continuing to follow all of these important rules, until further notice:
Our recommended visitation hours are 10am – 4pm daily, however if you are visiting outside regular business hours, please know you will be entering our campus through our Health Center doors;
All visitors must still continue to check in when they arrive on campus (including temperature and screening questions) and sign our COVID-19 waiver;
We ask that all visitors wear masks and practice social distancing;
All residents, regardless of vaccination status, may have “in-room” visits;
Any personal “in-room” visits in our Health Center should be scheduled in common areas, or when the roommate is out of the room; and
We still continue to encourage outdoor visits or visits in our common areas as much as possible.
As of today’s writing, I am very happy to report that we have no new confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 anywhere on campus.
If you have any specific questions, please direct them to Tina Antypas at 323 257-7518 X225 or tantypas@solheimsenior.org.