At the Circle of Care, our nursing Department is united in caring, courage, and compassion. Our team has gone above and beyond in helping our residents remain safe from the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are proud to announce our third deficiency-free Focused Infection Control Survey.
Our nursing department works closely with our therapy department, respiratory therapists, dialysis nurses, and technicians to ensure optimal care for your loved ones. We believe in a holistic nursing approach and go the extra mile to engage our residents in their personal treatment plans to include their preferences for everyday living activities. We participate in the PAL Card Quality Improvement Project as a way of honoring our residents’ individual preferences and recognizing them each individually.
As part of our 2021 innovation plans, we haved added UV-C hospital grade disinfection to our facility in order to bolster our improved infection control practices at our skilled nursing home facility.
We asked our Infection Preventionist, Debbie Pierce, to shed a little more light on what infection control has looked like in the past 12 months for Salem Circle of Care.
“My duties as an Infection Preventionist were never more important as they had been for the past year with the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been a daily task keeping up with and following CMS, CDC, and ODH guidelines which are ever-changing. We were the first CVS COVID-19 vaccination clinic in the area. Our residents and staff were vaccinated on-site receiving the two-dose Pfizer vaccination in three separate clinics finishing February 1, 2021.
The daily diligence of staff for well over a year has kept our COVID cases at a minimum. This has been a trying time for our residents, families, and employees while measures were put in place to keep everyone safe throughout the pandemic. Our facility has maintained daily screening of staff and visitors upon entry for COVID-19 signs and symptoms and residents monitored daily by nursing.
We continue state-supported COVID-19 testing for all employees and residents as ordered. This year has required alternative ways to allow residents to keep in touch with their loved ones, to socialize, and participate in activities with staff and co-residents. Our facility has put several methods in place to keep the environment safe: a Lumin UV sanitizer unit, a UV system installed through the facility’s HVAC system, and an R-Zero Arc UV-C mobile disinfection system that destroys 99.99% of pathogens.”
This past year, we have had three deficiency free Focused Infection Control Surveys from the Ohio Department of Health. Our residents and their safety will continue to remain our number one priority.”
- Debbie Pierce LPN, Infection Preventionist, Director of Quality Improvement