15 Mar Park Springs Opens To Long-Term Care, Memory Care And Assisted Living Family Visits
ATLANTA, March 15, 2021 – Nearly one year after the coronavirus pandemic entered the United States, causing businesses to shut down, schools to move to remote lessons and long-term care communities to close their doors to visitors, the long-term care, memory care and assisted living communities of Park Springs Life Plan Community are opening their doors to the families of Members – many who have not been able to have in-person visits without barriers and social distancing for 12 months. With COVID-19 vaccinations completed, members will be able to have visitors in their rooms for scheduled visits beginning on March 15.
“We have come full circle from where we were one year ago when we locked the doors to the outside world,” said Donna Moore, COO at Isakson Living, which owns and operates Park Springs. “At the beginning of this pandemic, we had 75 of our staff lock-in with our members for 75 days to protect them from COVID-19. Even after emerging from the lock-in in June, we steadfastly tested and followed all the protocols and guidelines to protect our members. And now that our members have been vaccinated and cleared the waiting period, we are so happy to see them reunited with their families.”
New guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 can safely visit with other vaccinated people and small groups of unvaccinated people, provided safety precautions are followed. According to the CDC, a person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last required dose of vaccine – a milestone that the members at Park Springs passed on March 6. Similarly, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new guidance for opening skilled nursing facilities for family visits.
Throughout the pandemic, Park Springs staff kept members engaged with their families through Zoom calls, Facetime and other technologies, window visits, and outdoor visits at fully enclosed tent structures where members are protected by a clear plastic sheet but can still see and talk to their family members in person. Families were able to choose the visitation that worked best for them with many scheduling weekly or daily visits.
Going forward, family members ages 12 and older will be allowed to visit in member rooms. Masks must be worn by all visitors and social distancing from other families within the community is required. There will be no visiting in common areas of the building, although outside visits at designated visitation stations are still an option.
“This is a long-anticipated day for our entire community as we know our members will receive so much joy in being able to hug and hold hands with their families after not being able to for so long,” said Park Springs Healthcare Administrator Nadia Williams. “Every time we cross a milestone – bringing back meals together in the household dining rooms, allowing interhousehold visits, creating the opportunity for outside visits, administering vaccinations – we are that much closer to normal. But this feels like the biggest step in that direction, and we are so happy for this day to have finally come.”
About Park Springs
Park Springs is an award-winning resort-style life plan community offering best-in-class independent living, assisted living, memory care and Medicare-certified skilled nursing on a beautiful 61-acre campus in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Park Springs’ long-term care, memory care and assisted living communities practice the relationship-based person-directed household model of care, which focuses on emotions to ensure members are living a life with purpose and aging with dignity.
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