Visitation, Communal Dining and Activities Guidelines
To our residents and family members,
We want to provide you with an update regarding our facility’s visitation guidelines. The safety and wellbeing of our residents, employees and our visitors is our top priority. We are doing what we can to limit the spread of COVID-19 within the facility. Please see the following visitation guidance:
- We do not restrict any visitations at this time. In an event of an outbreak, we will provide notification regarding the facility’s updates and any changes in our visitation guidelines. We will allow in person visitations regardless of the visitor’s vaccination status. We also have virtual communications available in an event that a family member is unable to visit their loved ones.
- We require that all visits be pre-arranged to provide our team sufficient time to ensure that all preparations needed for your visit have been completed such as disinfection and cleaning of designated visitation areas, and replenishing of our PPE supply and other sanitation needs. Please visit our website at www.berkleyeast.com to schedule your visitation appointments or you may call our facility at 310-829-5377 and our receptionist can assist you with any inquiries on how to book your visitation appointment. Any visitor entering the facility, regardless of their vaccination status must be screened for fever and COVID-19 and or other respiratory symptoms, wear appropriate facial covering and perform hand hygiene in the facility. We would require all of our visitors to comply with our infection prevention and control program to ensure the safety of our residents, employees and our visitors as well. We require the following from all of our visitors:
- COVID-19 test result (either rapid/PCR) on a sample taken within 72 hours (3 days) prior to the scheduled date of visit for any visitor/s that are coming from out of state or out of the country. A copy of the test result must be provided upon entry to the facility and prior to visiting the patient. If a recent COVID-19 test result is unavailable, we offer both PCR and rapid testing for COVID-19 in our facility at no cost.
- For all other visitors that are coming to see a resident, a COVID-19 test will be required unless a prior testing collected within the last 72 hours (3 days) from the date of facility visit for those who are unable to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination record prior to the date of visit and or at the time of visit. An additional PCR test may be obtained to supplement same day antigen testing. Regardless of the vaccination status, all visitors must be screened accordingly before seeing their loved one and all residents must maintain compliance with the facility’s infection prevention and control precautions with emphasis on proper masking (only medical grade or surgical mask/N95 respirator is allowed, cloth masks and double masking is not allowed in the facility) and PPE use.
- Upon entry and exit, we require that all visitors be screened by the front desk for fever and a completion of a symptom based questionnaire which includes but is not limited to an inquiry on COVID-19 vaccination status, recent exposure and recent travel. If a visitor is symptomatic upon screening or has been in close contact with a confirmed positive case, the facility would have to reschedule the visit and a follow up from our Infection Preventionist will be completed. Please be informed that further information may be requested for the purpose of contact tracing.
- A visitor’s name tag will be provided by the receptionist post screening at the front desk. All visitors must keep their name tags on at all times;
- Proper PPE use is required at all times during the visitation in all areas in the facility especially our resident care areas. A medical grade or surgical mask/respirator and an eye protection such as goggles and face shield (whichever is applicable) will be provided post screening if/when needed. A respirator fit testing may be required for all designated essential caregivers (assigned daily visitors, direct caregivers included in the residents’ plan of care such as those requested on a shift basis, prior home/ALF caregivers) on the day of the initial visit. Regardless of the vaccination status, proper PPE use must be observed at all times. We currently require proper masking for all staff and visitors that come to the facility regardless of vaccination status. We may ask a visitor/s to leave the facility’s premises and or prohibit entry for any visitor/s that will refuse and or be observed non-compliant with our infection prevention and control guidelines.
- For all initial visits, a brief orientation and or information sheet may be provided post screening to ensure that we are able to provide all necessary resources for all visits.
- For compassionate care visits such as end-of-life care and or designated essential caregivers, please feel free to call the facility to inform us of your visit so we may make arrangements as necessary.
- All visitors should maintain 6 feet or more of physical distancing. Fully vaccinated visitors of fully vaccinated residents may have brief, limited physical contact with the resident with mask on during in room visitation (e.g. brief hug, holding hands). For fully vaccinated residents and visitors/family members that use the rooftop for therapeutic stay or visitation, we may allow our resident and said visitors/family members to have their mask off with physical contact maintaining a minimum of 6 ft. distance from other fully vaccinated residents and visitors/family members.
- RESIDENTS IN SERENITY (2nd floor). We allow a maximum of THREE (3) visitors at a time for in room visitation to ensure appropriate social distancing for the duration of the visit. Applicable personal protective equipment (PPE) is required during the visit.
- RESIDENTS IN GREEN ZONE/COHORT. (Residents who do not present with any symptoms and have continuously been testing negative with the COVID-19 surveillance testing, COVID-19 recovered residents, fully vaccinated residents). Visits for residents who share a room will be conducted in a separate designated visitation area by our lobby or an assigned space in the dining/activity room if/when available following the area’s occupancy limit. If/when possible, we may allow in room visits with the roommate not present in the room. Please feel free to inform us of any accommodations you may need and we will gladly assist you.
- RESIDENTS IN YELLOW ZONE/COHORT EXCLUDING SYMPTOMATIC RESIDENTS. (Symptomatic residents). In-person visit is currently not recommended for residents that are symptomatic. We offer and have virtual communications available at any time for family members and or friends that would like to connect with their loved ones. Please feel free to inform us if any other accommodation is needed and we will assist you with necessary arrangements.
- RESIDENTS IN GREY ZONE/COHORT EXCLUDING SYMPTOMATIC RESIDENTS. (New admissions and readmissions that are partially vaccinated/unvaccinated, dialysis residents and or chemo infusion residents that are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated). Full personal protective equipment (PPE) will be provided and must be worn inside the room for the duration of the visit.
- RESIDENTS IN RED ZONE/COHORT. (Active COVID-19 residents) No in person visitation is allowed at this time for residents in isolation due to an active COVID-19 diagnosis. We offer and have virtual communications available at any time for family members and or friends that would like to connect with their loved ones.
- Note: All transportation personnel excluding EMS must wear a surgical mask/respirator and eye protection when coming in to resident care areas when applicable/as indicated (2nd, 3rd, 4th floor). PPE supplies will be provided upon entry to the facility post check in and screening. We encourage frequent hand hygiene and increased disinfection of transportation gurney and supplies. EMS are not required to be screened but must wear a mask when coming into the facility.
- Special circumstances.
- Only service pets are allowed in the facility for entry. Any other pets may be accommodated only at the lobby area;
- Children of ages 12 and below may be allowed entry and must be supervised at all times. No COVID-19 testing will be required for visitors of ages 12 and below but we encourage that children be assisted with hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene and maintaining social distancing;
- Cloth masks may be allowed only for visitors ages 12 and below;
- Visitors may be allowed to bring food for the resident but must check in at the nurse’s station to ensure that the food is safe for the resident to consume such as if it is clinically appropriate as the care team needs to consider any applicable dietary restrictions. Due to the risk of possible food borne illness, we encourage that food brought in must be for immediate and or same day consumption only. Please contact the facility for guidance for non-perishable items.
- We do not allow sleepovers/overnight stay for general visitors;
- Out on pass with family members/designated caregivers have resumed and may be allowed with doctor’s clearance. We encourage residents and family members to observe best infection prevention and control practices regardless of vaccination status;
- Facility tours have resumed and may be allowed by appointment only. Please refer to our online booking system for visitation to schedule a facility tour with our Admissions team.
Please see our visitation hours and visitor occupancy limit. We are open for visitation 7 days a week with the following visitation hours:
- Compassionate care visits such as hospice, end-of-life, palliative care, essential support caregivers are from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM (Please contact us for any other arrangements and accommodations);
- Visitation for residents in Serenity floor are from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM with a break time of 12:00 NN to 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM with a visitor occupancy limit of one (3) visitors/caregivers in the room for every visitation period;
- Visitation for residents in GREEN ZONE are from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM with a break time of 12:00 NN to 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM with an occupancy limit of one (1) visitor/caregiver at a time if roomed in 3rd or 4th floor semi-private rooms, and an occupancy limit of two (2) visitor/caregiver at a time in 3rd or 4th floor private rooms;
- Visitation for GREY ZONE are from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM with a break time of 12:00 NN to 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM with an occupancy limit of one (1) visitor/caregiver at a time if roomed in 3rd or 4th floor semi-private rooms and an occupancy limit of two (2) visitor/caregiver at a time in 3rd or 4th floor private rooms;
- Visitation for residents assigned to private rooms in 3rd and 4th floor. Visitation may vary following the applicable zone/area where the resident is currently roomed. Temporarily, we only allow a maximum of ONE (1) visitor/caregiver in the room.
Note: Please be informed that we are not allowing general visitation during resident meal times (breakfast, lunch and dinner) to ensure that we are able to assist all of our residents during these hours. To ensure we maintain continuity in resident activities, we may ask visitors to leave the facility in an event that the visitation becomes disruptive to our residents and our staff.
Communal Dining and Use of the facility’s Dining Area
Our facility had resumed the use of the dining area in all floors for communal dining. The facility offers the use of the dining area to all residents in the green and grey cohort. Please be informed that our facility has an increased occupancy limit of six (10) residents in the dining area. Kindly let us know if there are any dining arrangements that you and your family member would like to request and we will be glad to be of assistance. In room activities are continuously offered and provided to residents in yellow cohort who are symptomatic and those that are in red cohort.
Resident Activities and Use of the facility’s Rooftop Area
The facility values the well-being of our residents and in an effort to ensure that we are able to continue to provide the utmost care to our residents, we have increased our schedule of activities. We have recently opened our rooftop area for upcoming major holiday celebrations, resident centered celebrations such as birthdays and religious events. Due to the safety precautions we must observe during these times, we have implemented specific guidelines to ensure that we maintain the best infection prevention and control practices in the facility such as observance of the occupancy limit (currently at 24), usage of the sanitation areas and maintaining staff supervision during residents’ use.
In addition, we offer our rooftop area for therapeutic use to assist in our residents’ holistic recovery. Kindly inform our staff if you wish to use our rooftop area so we may further assist you and ensure that we provide all the resources our residents will need during their stay in the facility’s rooftop. We may prohibit the use of our rooftop area for safety reasons such as unsafe weather conditions and facility repairs or maintenance.
Out on pass requests must be under the clearance of an ordering physician with an indicated reason for facility out on pass reflecting the duration and the precautions needed to be observed during the resident’s therapeutic pass. To ensure that the facility continue to maintain a resident centered approach on out on pass and visitation, we ask that family members and other visitors see a Nursing staff for guidance prior to taking a resident out for brief walks or around the vicinity of the facility area to ensure that appropriate precautions are observed, supplies such as masks and hand sanitizers are provided, patient and visitor education is provided and that the resident is assessed to ensure that the resident is stable and safe to leave for a therapeutic pass. Please feel free to ask and see a Nursing staff for assistance.
We ask that you notify us and email our Infection Preventionist at FranchetteA@aspenskilledhealth.com or you may call at 310-829-5377 ext. 4009 if you develop any respiratory and or COVID-19 related signs and symptoms and/or have a positive test within 14 days of visiting the facility.
To ensure that the best infection prevention practices are observed and that all infection control measures are maintained in the facility, we are requiring that all visitations be pre-arranged. Walk-ins may not be accommodated at this time as we continue to extend our efforts in keeping our residents and our staff safe. We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding. We kindly ask that you share this information to other visitors of your family member, who is currently under our care that may wish to visit to ensure that we are able to continue to cater to our residents and visitors needs during their visit.
We are committed to doing everything we can to protect your loved ones and our employees. Please feel free to contact our Infection Preventionist – Franchette Almario with any questions and send your inquiries to FranchetteA@aspenskilledhealth.com. Thank you for supporting these efforts.