Visitors return to local nursing homes

At least two Tri-City area nursing homes are allowing residents to see in-person visitors after the state adopted guidance from the U.S. Health and Human Services that was issued in mid-September.
Representatives at Legacy Nursing and Rehabilitation of Morgan City and Patterson Health Care Center each confirmed that residents are allowed to receive in-person visitors.
A person who answered the phone at Maison Jardin Senior Living Community in Morgan City Tuesday said no one was available this week to release that information.
The U.S. Health and Human Services released guidelines for nursing home visits on Sept. 17, and Louisiana adopted the guidelines through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services a day later.
Both Patterson and Morgan City facilities conduct outside visits practicing safety protocol, including social distancing and masks.
“It’s modified visitation is what’s happening,” Legacy Morgan City Administrator Jeremy Ryman said. “It’s mostly outside visitation scheduled. It’s not like just walk in and do it.”
Robyn Rideau, social service director at the Patterson Health Care Center, said visitors can schedule visitation with residents during certain hours Monday through Friday.
Visitors at both facilities are screened before they are allowed to visit residents. Rideau said visitors sign a waiver prior to the visit.
“We’ll bring the resident out to them for their scheduled visit,” she said.
Ryman said they do allow some inside visits in Morgan City.
“It’s only on a case-by-case basis based on the resident’s need,” he said.
Before the in-person visits, residents visited with family members at each facility via video chats and visits at their windows. Parades were held at each facility for family members to see their family and friends.
“Of course our activity department did a wonderful job,” Ryman said. “They actually continued activities, practicing social distancing with the residents and kept them very busy to try to keep their mind off of it.”
Since May 18, nursing homes have been submitting weekly reports to the Louisiana Depart-ment of Health on COVID-19 stats in their facilities among residents and staff.
According to the Oct. 14 statistics, the latest available, the Patterson Health Care Center has had a total of 69 COVID-19 cases among residents during the pandemic. Sixty patients have recovered, and there have been nine deaths.
There have been 28 cases among staff at the facility during the pandemic, with all 28 staff members recovering.
At Legacy Nursing and Rehabilitation of Morgan City, there have been 39 cases among residents during the pandemic. Thirty four residents have recovered, and there have been five deaths.
There were 20 cases among staff, and all 20 staff members have recovered.
“We were one of the last of the facilities in the region to have our first case,” Ryman said.
He said that the Morgan City facility practices “very strict infection control guidelines.”
At Legacy Nursing and Rehabilitation of Franklin, which received the most attention locally during the pandemic, there have been 82 cases during the pandemic among residents, with 63 recovering. Nineteen have died.
Also, 26 staff members contracted the virus with all 26 recovering.
No stats were available for Maison Jardin Senior Living Community in Morgan City.
According to the Department of Health, only those facilities that are certified adult care facilities are mandated to report information in this report.
While any cases at other adult residential facilities are not broken down by each facility, the state does share the total of those facilities. It said that 185 adult residential facilities have had at least one COVID case among residents or staff reported, according to its Oct. 14 report.
According to the report, 1,245 COVID-19 cases have been reported among residents, while there have been 146 deaths.
The data, which is released on Wednesdays, can be found on a link at https://ldh.la.gov/index.cfm/page/3965.