Nursing homes and
long-term care facilities in Dallas-Fort Worth are rapidly implementing
protocols to protect the area’s most vulnerable residents.
By Dom
DiFurio 7:55 PM on Mar 12, 2020
Brandy O’Keefe visits
her mom three to five times each week at Parkview in Allen, an independent
living and retirement complex in the Dallas suburb. O’Keefe brings groceries,
helps with laundry and bathing, and keeps 76-year-old Vi Rentz company.
As of last week,
however, she stopped hugging or kissing her mother goodbye before she heads home
to Prosper.
“I’m just kind of
waving at her and heading out the door,” said O’Keefe. She’s concerned she
could expose her mother to COVID-19 as cases have steadily begun to emerge in
North Texas.
Nursing homes and
long-term care centers in Dallas-Fort Worth are beginning to limit visits to
elderly residents after public health officials provided updated guidance this
week.
In an address to the
country Wednesday evening, President Trump said his administration was
“strongly advising that nursing homes for the elderly suspend all medically
unnecessary visits.”
Now they’re grappling
with the how.
“It’s pretty much a
nightmare,” said CC Young president and CEO Russell Crews.
The CC Young assisted
living campus, in Dallas near White Rock Lake, is planning to restrict access
for anyone who isn’t a family member of a resident and everyone under 18. It’s
also suspending its volunteer staff for the time being.
“We’re moving toward
restricting campus access, and that will probably go into effect by Monday,”
Crews said.
“How do we decide who
comes in and who doesn’t? Because that’s ... that’s not an easy mark,” said
Crews. “The biggest challenge is families. How are we going to restrict that?”
Protocols for family
member visitation of the community’s roughly 425 elderly residents are still
evolving, he said.
‘Killing machine’
Before Trump’s
address Wednesday, U.S. health care experts had been advising senior living and
long-term care facilities across the U.S. to limit visitors “regardless of
whether your surrounding community has confirmed cases.” Centers have been
encouraged to have residents use alternate forms of communication with loved
ones because the new coronavirus poses an increased risk to elderly
populations.
The president and CEO
of the American Health Care Association, Mark Parkinson, called coronavirus an
“almost perfect killing machine” for the elderly during a recent interview with CNN.
There are 24 cases of
coronavirus confirmed in Texas, with three in Collin County and three in Dallas
County. Physicians have warned, however, that the lack of widespread testing means Texas may not
have an adequate sense of how many people have the virus or how rapidly it’s
spreading.
There are 249 nursing
homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, according to U.S. News & World Report. Vulnerable elderly
populations, however, live in a wide range of varying long-term care centers
that include more than just nursing homes.
Skyline Nursing
Center in Oak Cliff said it’s following guidelines from national health
officials and the federal government and distributing a Q&A explaining that
it is limiting visitation to its roughly 100 residents.
Lennwood Nursing
& Rehab in Dallas is only allowing visitors for reasons that are medically
necessary or in a situation where someone is receiving end-of-life care,
according to Lennwood VP of clinical services DJ Cook. When asked to elaborate
how Lennwood was determining which visits were medically necessary, Cook said
the nursing home is considering visitation on a case-by-case basis.
Sunrise Senior
Living, which has four locations in North Texas, said it’s “taking extra
precautions — beyond our existing infection control and emergency preparedness
programs — to help prevent the spread of the virus.” The company is limiting
entry to its communities to only “essential individuals.”
Sunrise’s team
members and its crucial service providers are allowed to enter its communities,
and the company is following “rigorous” screening policies to minimize
infection risk.
Tough decisions
O’Keefe’s mother
lives with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, a long-term
condition that makes it difficult for her to breathe. Rentz’s condition means
she has less than 50% of typical lung function and uses an oxygen tank. It also
puts her in the most vulnerable category for potential coronavirus cases.
Rentz, who can only
move around with the assistance of a motorized wheelchair, said her retirement
community was still open to visitors Thursday.
Parkview in Allen did
not respond to The Dallas Morning News’ request
for comment, but O’Keefe says the facility has CDC-provided signs and is
signing in and screening visitors at its front desk.
O’Keefe took the day
off work Thursday to stock Rentz up with groceries and necessary medications
and says she’s not sure whether she should continue visiting her mother.
“She usually can
figure out problems and issues, puzzles and things like that,” O’Keefe said of
her mother. “And this is a puzzle that can’t be understood or figured out right
now for her.”
She doesn’t like
thinking that they might not see one another in person for a while. “I know
that she would feel more comfortable with that physical touch or being able to
actually see someone,” O’Keefe said.
But a diagnosis of
COVID-19 would be a “death sentence” for someone like her, Rentz said.
“As isolated as I’m
going to start feeling — because I’m already feeling it — that’s one of the
things that is really going to hurt,” Rentz said.
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