Posted on 06/29/2020 4:16:24 AM PDT by lightman
HARRISBURG, Pa.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health and Human Services issued updated guidance to ease restrictions at long-term care facilities (LCTFs).
The plan will allow nursing homes, personal care homes, assisted living residences and private intermediate care facilities to safely resume activities, visitation, and other events for residents.
Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said, We developed this guidance through collective input from residents and families, stakeholders, academia and facility representatives to allow safe visitations with strong public health measures to balance the mental and physical well-being of Pennsylvanias most vulnerable residents. We will continue to work with and support facilities to ensure they adhere to these measures.
In order to cautiously lift restrictions in long-term care facilities (LTCFs), the Department of Health and of Human Services will now require all LTCFs to meet several prerequisites before proceeding into the official three-step process of reopening:
Develop an implementation plan and post that plan to the facilitys website, if the facility has a website, that specifies how the reopening and visitation requirements will be met Administer tests within 24 hours of a resident showing COVID-19 symptoms and complete baseline testing as required in the Secretarys Orders for skilled nursing facilities issued on June 8 and for personal care homes, assisted living residences, and private intermediate care facilities issued on June 26 Develop a plan to allow visitation that includes scheduling and other safety measures Develop a plan for isolating residents diagnosed with COVID-19 in accordance with PA-HAN 509 Establish and adhere to written screening protocols for all staff during each shift, each resident daily and all persons entering the facility Have adequate staffing and supply of personal protective equipment for all staff Be located in a county that is either in the yellow or green phase of the Governors Reopening Plan
Once a facility meets the required prerequisites, the facility will enter a three-step process of reopening:
Step One: From the date the facility enters step one, a facility must maintain no new COVID-19 cases among staff or residents and have no spread in the facility for 14 consecutive days in order to enter step two.
Step Two: While in step two, facilities are required to maintain no new cases of COVID-19 among staff or residents and have no spread in the facility for 14 consecutive days to progress into the final step.
Step Three: The final step allows LTCFs to operate as outlined for the remainder of the Governors COVID-19 Disaster Declaration as long as there are no new COVID-19 cases among staff and residents for 14 consecutive days.
If a new COVID-19 case is known, facilities will cease implementing their reopening plan and wait until they have no new COVID-19 cases for 14 consecutive days before restarting the process at step one.
Each step of the plan includes specific criteria for conducting dining, activities, non-essential personnel, volunteers, visitors and outings.
Visitations will only be allowed in steps two and three as long as the facility determines a resident is able to safely see visitors and will prioritize those with diseases causing progressive cognitive decline and residents expressing feelings of loneliness.
Facilities must designate visitation hours, locations (preferably outside or a pass-through not typically occupied or frequented by residents) and screenings to permit a visitor into the building.
During visits, social distancing and infection control protocols such as enforcing the proper hand hygiene with alcohol-based hand sanitizer and universal masking must be adhered to.
Facility staff will monitor visits so all safety guidelines are met and enforced. After each visit concludes, staff will need to sign out the visitor and properly disinfect the designated visitation location. Guidance for visitors is available here. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wolf Administration has taken a three-pillar approach to protecting the residents living in LTCFs by:
Ensuring resident safety through testing, education and resources Preventing and mitigating outbreaks Working in partnership with state agencies, local health departments and LTCF operators
The new guidance issued by the state will supersede the previous guidance issued for nursing homes and personal care homes, assisted living residences and private intermediate care facilities.
Previously, the ongoing visitor limitations, personnel restrictions, and other measures in LTCFs remained in place at least 28 days after the respective facilitys county enters the green phase in the Governors Process to Reopen Pennsylvania.
For additional resources regarding COVID-19 and nursing homes in Pennsylvania, please visit the Department of Healths COVID-19 Information for Nursing Homes website.
For more information regarding personal care homes, assisted living residences and private intermediate care facilities, please visit the Department of Human Services website.
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
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Wolf is one of the 5 governors refusing to coperate with Steve Scalise’s nursing home deaths investigation.
They are all refusing to comply.
the PA governor and his tranny med advisor have
murdered 1000s of people already.
thousand of people innocent <=== victims
Gov. Wolf and Mr. Levine <==== enemies of living humans
Is the Secretary of Health’s mom back in her nursing home yet...?
Did we ever find out who’s paying for mom’s room while she’s not in it? When she was in it?
Tranny-in-Charge (PA): "Leave my mommy alone.
She was not like the others who we determined HAD to die."
The creature from Trans-sylvania.
Wolf is despicable.
Nursing homes are the only places I would keep locked down now.
The PA Ping Rules state that a picture of the she/he/it must quickly be followed with the only proven antidote and eyewash: A picture of our lovely FLOTUS!
Your tax dollars at work.
Just don’t ask what they’ve doing with all those billions up to now.
Pennsylvania - Number 5 in population and Number 1 in the size of state government. That’s where our tax dollars are going... Oh, and let’s not forget almost perpetual road construction.
"Dr. Garrison's fancy new vagina"!
https://wiki.southpark.cc.com/wiki/Mr._Garrison%27s_Fancy_New_Vagina
And we all thought South Park was just satire!
Common sense isn't in short supply in just PA.
New York is allowing sports -- including basketball -- and indoor dining at 75% capacity next week!
Wondering if these people are actually trying to spread the disease around, or if they just aren't the sharpest pencils in the box.
This is the first epidemic in history where healthy people have been locked up.
That should tell you this was never about public health.
Translation: I just made this thing up a day ago all by myself but you're never going to hold me accountable for it because I'm a member of a protected class of citizens and any criticism will be considered a hate crime.
Every single announcement that Dr. Levine has made throughout this entire sh#+show has been exactly like this: days or weeks later than necessary, clearly just made up out of whole cloth, inconsistent with decisions made by other states, and completely opaque as to the process. There's absolutely no reasons n why this exact policy couldn't have been issued six or more weeks ago, unless Dr. Levine just made it up recently. It's not complicated, clever, or even based on reality. Nothing address's when a family can take a nursing home resident out of the facility for a visit or outing. When does a family member get to wheel a family member around the grounds of a facility? When does a wife even get to give her husband in a nursing home a hug and a kiss? These are the questions people are looking to answer.
I don't care if "she" is actually a "he" badly impersonating a woman and we all have to pretend that this is normal, I do care that "she" is an incompetent hack badly impersonating a competent government official during a crisis and we all have to pretend this is normal.
“This is the first epidemic in history where healthy people
have been locked up” ....
where those infected have been flown/driven to
uninfected cities (recently by helicopter in CA) ...
where those infected have been FORCED into nursing
homes to murder conservative geriatric innocents ...
where EVERYONE is forced into training Burqas ...
where plans are underway to infect everyone with
FauXi’s retroviruses and worse.
Governor Tom Death to the rescue!
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