Elder care facilities curb visits by family

Colette Harben is 89 and can’t speak, so she relies heavily on her family for care and comfort as they visit her each day at Northside Gwinnett Extended Care Center in Lawrenceville.

That has been their routine these past six years. But on Thursday her son and daughter were on a daily visit when the nursing staff told them they had to leave. There was no time to discuss how the care the family provides each day would be covered. The facility was swiftly implementing a strict no-visitor policy to combat concerns over the coronavirus.

The Harben family now feels cut off, and they are worried about their mother.

“It’s devastating,” said Steve Harben, who would spend most days with his mother at the facility, playing music, sitting in the courtyard and wheeling her through the halls. “After being able to assist her every day and now to be completely in the dark about how she’s doing. They didn’t tell us how long this is going to be in effect.”

With the frail elderly at high risk from the coronavirus, many of Georgia’s long-term care facilities have imposed new restrictions on visitors and screenings for staff, and some adult day care centers have temporarily closed. The facilities carry a dual burden of shielding residents from a potentially deadly pandemic while also trying to keep their facilities fully staffed, at a time when school closures are forcing some caregivers to stay home with small children.

“The particular vulnerability of our extended care residents requires very strict measures to protect them, and we have instituted them for as long as they are necessary,” said Lee Echols, a Northside spokesman. “We will work with family members to understand these measures and why they are so important.”

No positive cases in a skilled nursing facility or assisted living home in Georgia have yet been reported, said Tony Marshall, president and CEO of the Georgia Health Care Association, which represents skilled nursing facilities and assisted living communities. He said some residents were tested for the virus in the last week, and tests came back negative.

But given the high risk for vulnerable seniors, the facilities caring for elderly residents want to avoid the kind of COVID-19 outbreak that swept through a nursing home in Washington state, causing deaths and hospitalizations of patients and leaving about a third of the facility’s staff with symptoms.

“The best means of ensuring the safety of our residents is to prevent the introduction of the virus,” Marshall said.

Both the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the national association for the long-term care industry have issued updated recommendations in recent days, calling on nursing homes and assisted living communities to restrict visitors.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma said during a news conference Friday with President Donald Trump that the agency will be issuing even stricter limits on visits to nursing homes. “We are doing what we must to protect our vulnerable elderly,” she said.

Many providers are taking direction from professional organizations and government agencies and sharing information among one another on how to manage the challenges ahead, said Ginny Helms, president/CEO of LeadingAge Georgia, which represents nonprofit senior care facilities.

The situation is evolving rapidly as providers make day-byday calls on how to best protect their populations. Two adult day cares that are LeadingAge members announced Friday they are temporarily closing in order to protect seniors. The issue of how to manage visitors is a big decision all facilities are facing, she said.

“We know restricting visitors is going to help cut down on exposure,” Helms said.

Facilities are also screening staff members in hopes of keeping their facilities free of the virus. At the same time, on Friday they were facing a new staffing challenge as widespread school closures forced some frontline workers to stay at home with young children instead of reporting to work to care for elderly residents.

“When you have school closures and your employees can’t come to work — we’re facing a significant challenge right now,” said Marshall.

The Georgia Senior Living Association, which represents assisted living communities and personal care homes, said its members are restricting visitors to cases involving end-of-life treatment or when a visitor is essential for a resident’s emotional or physical well-being. Anyone who does enter a facility, including staff, is screened for health history and has their temperature taken. Access by vendors is limited.

The question is how far facilities should go with the restrictions.

Melanie McNeil, Georgia’s longterm care ombudsman, whose office advocates for residents, said she expected facilities to take reasonable precautions, which may include limiting visitors. But she said it’s important for facilities to find ways for residents to say in touch with family members while also allowing flexibility when it comes to in-person visits.

“If there’s a situation where it’s important for the family member to visit, we’re going to advocate for that,” she said.

A.G. Rhodes, a nonprofit nursing home provider with three locations in metro Atlanta, informed its residents’ families this week that it was restricting visitors. CEO Deke Cateau said it was a difficult decision. “We said to ourselves, literally, ‘What would we want for our mom or our dad?” Cateau said.

To keep families safely connected, he said the homes would use Skype and other communication platforms.

In another measure to protect patients from the virus, before essential staff can enter the building, each person is screened for any risks and their temperature is taken.

The average A.G. Rhodes resident is over age 80, which is the most high-risk group.

“Our job is, as best as possible, to keep them healthy and safe,” he said. “Most of our families and staff have been very understanding.”

At Wesley Woods Senior Living, a network of 10 assisted living and independent living facilities across Georgia, residents for the most part have been receptive to the screenings and restricted access of visitors, said Terry Bancroft, president/CEO of the nonprofit.

“They are following the same news we are,” Bancroft said. “They feel good that we are protecting them in that way.”

She sees continued tightening of controls on access to the buildings if the virus continues to spread across the state to the point where it could be essential personnel only.

“This is going to be a day-by-day change,” she said. “Tomorrow, depending on what we learn, we could be doing it that quickly.”

HYOSUB SHIN / HYOSUB.SHIN@AJC.COM Steve Harben holds a photo Friday of his parents at Northside Gwinnett Extended Care Center in Lawrenceville. The facility restricted him from visiting his mother because of the coronavirus. “It’s devastating,” said Harben, who would visit her to play music and wheel her through the halls.