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We would like to recognize our incredible partners (employees) for providing excellent care and compassion to our patients and each other during these unprecedented times. Thank you to our families and community members for your kind words and outpouring of support to our patients and our partners. We appreciate you!

COVID-19 Vaccine: For more information about the COVID-19 vaccine, please click here.

Precautions: We continue to follow infection control guidelines from the CDC and CMS, including proper hand-washing techniques, extensive environmental services, social distancing, and wearing appropriate personal protective equipment. We will follow our standard procedures and notify you if your loved one has a change in condition. We continue to screen partners and actively take temperatures.

Testing: CMS has issued updated requirements for COVID-19 testing in our centers. In addition to the symptomatic testing that has already been occurring, we are now required to test all partners and patients in response to a single new infection of COVID-19. The testing method is less invasive and results in less patient discomfort. We are to continue to test all patients and partners until no new cases are identified for 14 days. CMS also has released a new requirement for routine testing of partners based on the extent of the virus in the community.

Reporting: CMS now requires us to notify the families of our skilled nursing patients via our website of status changes including when a confirmed infection of COVID-19 is identified, or whenever 3 or more residents or staff with new onset of respiratory symptoms within 72 hours of each other are under investigation. Please check out the new notification dashboard below.

We report all positive confirmations of patients and partners (employees) directly to the local and state departments of health. Active positive patients are supported in identified “transitional areas” in designated centers with dedicated team members equipped with proper personal protective equipment. All infection control protocols per CDC and CMS are followed extensively. We follow CDC guidelines in handling positive COVID-19 partners (employees).

Visitation and Visitor Precautions

Visitation: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provided new guidance for nursing home visitation on March 10, 2021 to safely expand visitation options. While we are still reviewing the guidance, the indication that our patients can visit with their loved ones is welcome news that we fully support at NHC. It has been nearly one year to the day since visitors were restricted from our centers, and now thanks to the vaccine, we cannot wait to safely reopen our doors. Our dedicated partners have done an exceptional job filling in for you, providing that support, and facilitating alternative visits during this difficult time, but as you are well aware nothing can replace your in-person visits to your loved ones. The health and well-being of our patients will improve thanks to this important guidance. 

In the meantime, please continue to use the Calendly program below to schedule visitations. Please understand that visitation policies have the potential to change daily, based upon state and federal guidance as well as the positivity rate of each center and community.

To find out the county-level positivity for any facility, please visit https://data.cms.gov/stories/s/COVID-19-Nursing-Home-Data/bkwz-xpvg/ and scroll to the “COVID-19 Testing” paragraph and click the link to view “rates of county positivity.”