Dear Residents and Families,
This update is specific to today’s changes regarding visitations to long term care homes in PEI. Today the government of PEI and the Chief Public Health Office have released new guidelines for allowing outdoor visits at long term care facilities. We have been working with the government and the CPHO in the development of this plan. We are pleased to provide you with more details on how this will work at Garden Home and Whisperwood Villa.
Outdoor visits will begin at Garden Home on Monday, June 1. Outdoor visits will start at Whisperwood Villa on Tuesday, June 2. Appointments will be scheduled for 30 minutes, much like window visits and Skype calls have been. Below are the phone numbers to call to schedule an outdoor visit. Please remain patient as we provide equal opportunity for all families and residents to visit. Initially, we will have a capacity for between 14 and 20 visitors per day, six days per week. With 133 residents in each home, it will take several days for everyone to have an opportunity for a visit. We will work with you to maximize your visits while being fair to all residents and families.
Visitors are limited to two designated people per resident. This is a total of two visitors, not two per day or per visit. We will work with families to create a list of the two designated visitors per resident. It may be hard for some families to pick just two approved visitors. Please know that in time this list will be expanded when permitted by the Chief Public Health Officer. Until then, these two visitors remain consistent and do not change and will be asked to provide identification when arriving for a visit.
In the beginning, scheduled visits will keep to a maximum of 30 minutes each. This is to allow for as many visits as possible per day and cleaning between visits. All visits will be outdoors. No visitors will enter the building. Visits will take place outdoors under canopies and tents. At Garden Home, the shelter will be in the back parking lot, where visitors will have designated parking spots. At Whisperwood Villa, visits will be on the front patio and visitors will park in the front parking lot near the main entrance. At both homes, one of our staff will greet you in your car. Remain in your vehicle and we will assist you through the process or getting ready for the visit. This will include screening visitors for risks using a questionnaire, temperature checking, donning a mask for the visit (reusable or disposable provided by us), hand washing and reviewing visitor’s ID to cross-reference with visitors list. After this, our host will escort visitors under the tent for a visit. Residents will be brought out to the visiting area after the families are screened and seated in the visiting area. All visitors must always wear masks during the visit. Please bring your mask if possible.
We will have two visits happen simultaneously, and a minimum six-foot distance needs to be maintained between yourself, residents and other visitors. A staff member will be there as your host or hostess to help you through this and keep everyone aware of the physical distancing requirement. We wish the risks were low enough for families to hug each other and hold hands, but that is not possible currently. There will be no exchange of goods at these visits. We will give visitors a 5-minute reminder when the visit is close to the end of the 30-minute appointment.
These are outdoor visits, and we plan to proceed rain or shine, but if we get frigid, wet and windy days, we may need to postpone visits due to weather.
When the visit is over, all guests will be escorted back to their cars, and there will be no loitering permitted after the visit to allow staff to maintain the safety of the process and allow preparation time for the next visit.
To book an appointment at Garden Home please call 902 892 4131 – EXTENSION 4233
To book an appointment at Whisperwood Villa please call 902-388-1603
We will share more information by email and on our Facebook page in the coming days. We look forward to seeing you at our homes. If all goes well, there will be more restrictions removed in the coming weeks and months. Thank you for your support. Below are some contact numbers to help you stay connected with us.
Sincerely,
Jason Lee
Chief Executive Officer, PEI Seniors Homes
We post regular updates on our Facebook pages which are located at these links:
Garden Home: https://www.facebook.com/peiseniorshomes/
Whisperwood Villa: https://www.facebook.com/wwvseniorshome/