News

June 4, 2020

Dear Family and Friends,

We have completed whole house testing for the second week. Residents and staff were troopers, as having something put up your nose is not comfortable.  The National Guard team is very caring and compassionate and we are grateful for their time and effort.  Jones-Harrison will be having one more round of testing next week with the National Guard.

We had no new COVID-19 cases with our residents this week!  We have two residents graduating and moving off the isolation unit.  We had one staff person test positive who was asymptomatic.  That staff person will be on isolation for the next two weeks.  The Assisted Living building also had no new cases of residents or staff.

Jones-Harrison wants to remind our families and friends that even though the state is starting to open up, our Care Center and Assisted Living are under different rules.  We are still under the guidelines of the federal and state government to not allow visitors unless for end of life visits.  Our activities department is working on setting up window visits with families in the very near future and we will still maintain the video calls. We understand the frustration people have not seeing their families but until new guidelines come from the state and federal government, we ask for people’s understanding.

On a happy note, we are going to be phasing back our 1:1 strength training visits for those enrolled in our Wellness program.  Our goal is to slowly move life back to some normalcy for our residents.  We have all read or heard about the toll isolation has had on everyone’s mental health and our staff understand the need to help move forward.

The future of living with COVID-19 will change how we all interact with one another and our elderly.  Even though we are heading in a positive direction, Jones-Harrison understands we must stay vigilant in prevention, prepare for how our future looks, and learn to live with a new state of being.  We will all be learning this new future together.  Jones-Harrison residents and staff are grateful for our families and friends and in knowing we will have your support.

Annette Greely, President/CEO

June 1, 2020

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you everyone for being patient as we got results back from our whole house testing!  We will give you total test numbers from last week in this update.

Here are the numbers from our whole house testing:

Skilled/Care Center         Assisted Living                   Staff (includes AL and Care Center)

102 tested                          28 tested                            210 tested

9 positive                           1 positive                            3 positive (all Care Center staff)

Those residents who tested positive were moved to the isolation unit at the care center. The residents who tested positive were showing no symptoms and were moved to isolation for monitoring.  Staff who tested positive were not allowed to come back to work until they go through the 14-day isolation period.

There are currently 15 residents on isolation in our care center. We have had 15 people pass away from COVID-19 in our care center and two residents in our assisted living, since this began.  Our blessing is we have had 10 people recover from isolation and move back to their rooms.  Since this began, we have had 27 staff test positive, many have recovered and returned to help us.

We will also be testing again tomorrow, Tuesday, June 2 and Wednesday, June 3.  The National Guard will be out to test all residents and staff who tested negative.  These tests will occur again next Tuesday and Wednesday with the National Guard.  Please know that we are still testing residents and staff in between these times if symptoms occur.

Jones-Harrison will be emailed our results from the Mayo Health System in Rochester.  Test results are coming back in batches at different times.  This time, we will be calling our resident’s primary contact if results come back positive. We will not be calling to report negative results. PLEASE DO NOT call us asking for results unless we have left a message for you to call us.  We will email again (hopefully Friday) to let you know that all results are in and if you have not been called then your loved one is negative.

All of us at Jones-Harrison were saddened by the events of the past week in Minneapolis.  The safety of our residents and staff during these challenging times are upmost in our minds.  We are monitoring the situation constantly for the residents.  We are working to provide transportation and housing options if needed for our staff who live in these communities.

These times are a test of the human spirit.  The strain of COVID-19 and the winds of change for justice and equality, strain our spirit and we take moments of gratitude from the support of our Jones-Harrison family and friends.  Your support and prayers are a comfort to our residents and staff.

Sincerely,

Annette Greely, President/CEO