Strict screening for visitors to seniors’ centres
Strict measures for screening visitors are being introduced in nursing homes and long-term care centres in Montreal and across the province in a bid to prevent residents from being infected by COVID-19, the respiratory disease that has sickened more than 134,000 people worldwide since December.
In Quebec as of Thursday, there were 17 confirmed cases.
Marguerite Blais, the minister responsible for seniors and informal caregivers, said Thursday that security personnel at the reception desks at the entrance to long-term care centres would be screening all visitors as of Friday.
They’ll be asking people who wish to visit if they have symptoms of a respiratory infection, whether they have travelled during the past 14 days to countries with COVID-19 travel advisories or been in contact with someone with a confirmed case: Those who answer yes will not be allowed in.
Premier François Legault extended the caveat to all elderly Quebecers, those in their own homes as well as those in care centres.
“If you returned from a trip or if you have flu-like symptoms, do not go and visit the elderly,” he said on Thursday.
Quebec’s director of public health, Dr. Horacio Arruda, suggested this week that students returning from spring break vacations wait before visiting their grandparents in nursing homes: Now is not the time to show them your vacation pictures, he said.
Symptoms of COVID -19 are fever, a dry cough and, in some cases, shortness of breath. Anyone with symptoms who has been travelling within the past 14 days is told to return home and call Info-santé at 811.
Older people, whose immune systems are weaker than those of younger people and who often have such underlying health conditions as heart disease or diabetes, are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. In the United States, nursing home visits are being limited and curtailed following outbreaks in several facilities in Washington State.
“What is really important is that if you’re sick, don’t come visit: That has really got to be the message,” said Barbra Gold, director of the support program for the autonomy of seniors at the CIUSSS West-central Montreal, where long-term centres include the Jewish Eldercare Centre, the Maimonides Geriatric Centre and the Centres d’hébergement St-margaret and Father Dowd.
As well, the health of staff who work in care centres and who look after the elderly at home is being monitored, she said.
“We are definitely telling people, ‘If you are sick, do not come to work.’ We ask it every day.”
In addition to these measures, there is enhanced emphasis on hand hygiene, with ubiquitous hand sanitizers and attention-grabbing posters encouraging people to stop and sanitize.
“People should understand that proper hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette is a way to protect their loved ones,” said Dr. Willine
Rozefort, assistant to the director of professional services at the CIUSSS Ouest-de-l’île.
Proper hand hygiene involves frequent washing of hands with soap for at least 20 seconds and, if sinks are unavailable, using sanitizer; proper respiratory etiquette means sneezing or coughing into the crook of one’s arm or into a tissue that is then discarded properly.
“Long-term care facility residents make up one of the most vulnerable populations and it’s really important that we work together to try to protect them. We all have a social responsibility in this regard,” she said.
Although staff at these centres has always been vigilant, “now we are reinforcing the measures and doing more education for visitors and to family members,” she said. “We are more proactive now.”
Training sessions about COVID-19 are held regularly for staff.
“Learning is by repetition,” she said.
Special COVID-19 protocols are in place in private facilities as well. The Chartwell Retirement Residences, with more than 180 locations across Canada including Le Wellesley in Pointe-claire, include screening at entrances, promoting hand hygiene, surveillance of residents for symptoms, self-isolation for employees who have travelled to countries with COVID -19 health advisories and increased cleaning and disinfection of high-touch surfaces:
At Groupe Sélection, with Le Waldorf in Côte-st-luc and Le Cambridge and Sélection West Island in Pointe-claire among its 45 residences across Quebec, “we remind residents of the importance of prevention — of paying close attention to whether they have cough and fever symptoms and also to hand washing,” said Mylène Dupéré, vice-president of public affairs and corporate communications. Posters remind visitors to use hand sanitizer, and suppliers and commercial tenants such as hairdressers and pharmacies abide by the same protocols, she said.
Visitors, too, are asked to be cognizant of their health, she said.
“The most important thing is that we are asking is this: ‘Is it necessary for you to come visit now?’ ”
An open house planned for this Sunday throughout the Selection network has been postponed, Dupéré said; those who want one can have a personalized tour arranged.