March 10, 2020
Re: Covid-19 and new Protocol
Dear Residents, Families and Staff,
The Covid-19 virus and the response to it has been rapidly evolving. At Cogir, we have been responsive to the extraordinary recommendations by public health officials and diligent in our safety protocols by limiting contact of our residents and team members to the potential spread of this virus in our communities. Our goal is to continue to provide a safe and healthy environment. Currently, we do not have any presumptive or confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and we will continue to make safety and cleanliness our top priority. We will distribute updates as we have new information.
Prior to today, we have employed a multi-pronged approach to limiting contact with Covid-19 taking the following actions:
1. Actively monitoring residents and staff for symptoms of the virus
2. Screening all visitors for current or recent flu-like symptoms, and empowering our teams to prevent entry of any visitor who is exhibiting symptoms, reported recent symptoms or those having been in contact with anyone who had experienced symptoms
3. Required all visitors and staff to practice handwashing or sanitizing as they enter and exit the community
4. Limited outside activities and group gatherings
5. Closed our salons
6. Closed our salad bars and buffets
7. Increased the cleaning and disinfecting in our buildings
We understand the inconvenience this may have caused you and your families. Your cooperation and willingness to comply with these extraordinary steps has been inspiring and appreciated.
Today, Governor Inslee has distributed a proclamation focused on the safety of the citizens of Washington and prioritizing additional security measures for the senior housing industry. A copy of the decree can be found here:
https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/proclamations/20-06 Coronavirus (tmp).pdf
Each of our communities has also posted this announcement at the front desk area of the community. For the most part, these steps are those things we have already been practicing as outlined above. However, in some cases, there are some further restrictions outlined below for additional steps for the safety of our residents and staff. We have already implemented these added precautions which include:
1. Visitors MUST be adults, thus no one under the age 18 will be allowed. (ID Is now required)
2. All visitors will continue to be screened, but now temperatures will be taken for all staff and visitors seeking entrance to the community. We will be doing this with touchless thermometers. These thermometers can sometimes produce a high reading after coming in from the outside, thus if someone has a temperature of over 100.4 initially, we will use a secondary method and confirm the temperature. If the temperature is confirmed above 100.4, a visit will be declined.
3. Approved visits must take place in resident’s room.
4. We will also be following the SAME screening procedure for our staff and our volunteers at the beginning of each shift.
5. All visitors and volunteers must sign into a log and the log will be kept on record for a minimum of 30 days. Required information will include name, address, phone number and email addresses so we may be able to contact visitors later if necessary.
6. All employees, volunteers and visitors who have passed the screening will have a sticker. Having the sticker indicates screening was successfully passed. Anyone who does not pass the screening will not be allowed to enter the community.
At Cogir, our professionals have the safety of our residents, families, and team members at heart. We ask for your patience as we work with the experts to understand the full reach of this illness and to minimize its impact on our residents, staff and our families. We know you understand and appreciate the importance of these measures and thank you for your continued cooperation as we all work together for everyone’s safety.
Thank you,
Walter Jossart
President