SALYERSVILLE – After nearly a year of extremely limited visitation options for local nursing home residents, Salyersville Nursing and Rehabilitation released the following letter last week announcing they can now allow some indoor visitation:
The staff of Salyersville Nursing & Rehabilitation Center is pleased to announce that we now can allow responsible, safe indoor visitation with family and friends. We have all experienced a long and challenging year and none more so than our residents. As the excitement builds of re-opening our doors to visitors, we would like to share some of the best practices related to infection control and safety that have been standard during this pandemic. CMS guidance is for safe visitation adhering to the core principles infection control by safe distancing and continues to promote outside visitation whenever possible.
During the course of the pandemic, we have stressed the importance of healthy visitation and work habits. This includes things such as frequent washing of hands and use of hand sanitizers to prevent the spread of germs. We will have hand sanitizer at the entry door and ask that you use before entering our resident care area.
Normal visitation hours will be between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. If you need to visit outside these times, please call the center at (606) 349-6181 and we can schedule a time to better serve you while not disturbing resident routines and quiet time.
As we continue to provide a safe environment for our residents, we ask that all visitors use the main, designated entrance upon arriving and leaving the center.
All visitors will be screened upon entrance. This will include a temperature check and questionnaire. Those presenting with a fever (100 degrees or higher) or symptoms will not be permitted to visit until 24 hours have passed since last experiencing symptoms. All employees continue to be routinely screened daily.
At this time, all visitors will be asked to wear a mask at all times that covers the nose and mouth. Our staff also wears masks at all times while in the facility.
We ask that you limit your visit to your loved ones’ room and not be visiting in other rooms or other areas of the facility.
As we continue to promote social distancing guidance, we ask to limit visitors to 3 or less at a time with in-room visits. This is required to accommodate what is typically 2 residents in a shared room. Again, CMS strongly encourages outdoor visitation which will not be limited to numbers and can be easily accommodated in most cases, especially as we welcome Spring and the weather will be conducive to outdoor activity.
We are excited to see you and more importantly so are your loved ones. As always if you have concerns or questions, feel free to reach out to us.
CMS has listed these exceptions for visitation:
– Unvaccinated resident if COVID-19 county positivity rate is greater than 10 percent and less than 70 percent of residents in the facility has been vaccinated;
– Residents with confirmed COVID-19 infections, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, until they have met the criteria to discontinue transmission-based precaution; or
– Resident in Quarantine, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, until they have met criteria for release from quarantine.
Looking forward to seeing you,
Joshua L. Calhoun
Going by state reports, it is believed that most if not all of the residents at SNRC have had the virus previously, and vaccines have been offered to all residents and staff, though no numbers are known at press time regarding how many have been vaccinated.
