Ivy Hall Nursing Home responds to positive COVID-19 cases
Published 4:24 pm Monday, April 27, 2020
- File Photo This is just one of the signs on the entrance doors of Ivy Hall Nursing Home that were put up around 8 weeks ago.
On Friday, April 24, Ivy Hall Nursing Home announced that three of their employees had tested positive for COVID-19.
These employees were asymptomatic, and were tested as precaution along with all other staff and residents a week prior. Since then, one resident, who is also asymptomatic, has tested positive. This is being sent to a state lab for a second result.
“We decided last week that we wanted to be proactive,” Judy DeLoach, the Administrator and owner of Ivy Hall Nursing Home, said. “We contracted with a lab that we paid for tests. We wanted to keep in front of it. Nobody else has tested everyone, but we did.”
According to DeLoach, the employees and the resident are all in isolation, and are in good condition as of now.
“The employees are at home under self-quarantine, and we are watching our resident very closely, and monitoring anything,” she said. “We’re monitoring, and we’re going to continue to.”
In addition to the mass testing, the facility also terminated visitation eight weeks ago, began screening employees with temperatures and a questionnaire prior to shifts and purchased a shoe sanitizer that was used before people even touched the floor of the building.
DeLoach described the dangers of spreading while asymptomatic.
DeLoach wants the public to know how much residents are being protected and loved during this time.
“You have to have people take care of these little residents,” she said. “We love them. They’re our family. We are working every minute to try to keep them safe and healthy. The only way we can keep doing that is if everyone can keep doing what they’re supposed to do.”
Those who tested positive, have also been retested. Residents are being given extra treats to keep them happy at this time, and families are notified as things develop. Residents also did well with testing, many of which wanted it done.
In response to their preventative measures, and still getting positive cases, DeLoach stressed the importance of social distancing, even if you have no symptoms.
“Every nursing home that this has happened to, it has come from an employee who had no idea,” she said. “We have got to social distance, we have got to quarantine. It’s just so important.”
