The recent COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the world for a loop, causing changes that people would have never predicted just months ago. Some of those changes will be with us for years to come, possibly forever. Homeplace of Henderson has also had to change, but because, right now as this is being written, we are still in construction phase, the changes we are making are in our building plans. We are putting these into place in case COVID-19 is still with us when we open next year or if a similar infectious disease starts spreading in the future. Because our residents and your loved ones are at the highest risk, we know that we can never be too safe. Let’s take a quick look at the modifications we’re making to our design plan to keep your loved senior citizen and our staff even safer.
First, a shower room for staff is now a part of the plans. This is especially important for employees who may be designated to work in a contaminated pod. Our staff will always be fully protected as they take care of residents in this scenario, wearing the necessary personal protective equipment and changing PPE as they go from room to room. But when their day is over, we’ve got a shower room so that they can clean up and completely disinfect before going home to their family.
Second, we’re building storage areas for PPE. To be completely ready for the future, we’re going to buy much more PPE than what we’d need for normal operations. This extra we’ll store just in case.
Additionally, we’re working with HVAC professionals to come up with a method to pump in increased fresh air to residents’ rooms. This will cut down on the spread of disease and keep your loved one healthy.
We’re also currently researching negative pressure rooms. These are rooms that are used to isolate residents who have caught an infectious disease. Because the air inside the room is kept at a lower air pressure, contaminated air or dangerous particles don’t escape when a door is opened. The air in the room is cleaned when contaminated air is sucked up by an exhaust system, through a filter and cleaned, and then out and away from the facility.
One final piece of protocol to keep in mind is that all our entrances will be equipped with thermal cameras. Our staff will be able to get a temperature reading on each person who enters the building. Especially in sensitive times, we can then go to that individual and re-check his temperature manually. At that time, we can take appropriate measures. For example, if a visitor has a reading of more than 100.6, we will ask him to leave and come back when he’s well.
We’ve seen it happen all too much in the past few months, and we know it’s true. Senior living residents are some of the most susceptible to COVID-19. We hope that once we get this pandemic licked, we never see it again. But at Homeplace, we plan for the worst and hope for the best. No matter what, we’ll be ready.
To contact the Homeplace of Henderson, email Jessica Beaven at jessica.beaven@homeplaceofhenderson.com, call at (270) 577-0534, or write to 1 Homeplace Boulevard, Henderson, KY 42420.