Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19)

COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease. In the absence of vaccines, it poses greatest risk to the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.

At least every Thursday, we write to each of our families and each of our staff members to keep them informed of the actions we have put in place to manage this pandemic, how this affects residents and what families and staff members can do to help.  When events are moving rapidly, we communicate more often. These communications are tailored to the particular circumstances in ‘their’ State or locality.

Topics include:

• infection prevention, staff training, personal protective equipment (PPE), Covid testing, self-isolation
• screening of all people entering the facility (temperature, symptoms, contacts with others, travel etc), visitor access, visits for exceptional circumstances, influenza vaccinations,
• measures to minimise community transmission (social distancing, hand washing, cough etiquette, masks etc)
• Directions issued by State and Federal Health authorities – and many more.

To support our governance and planning, we have a  COVID-19 Steering Committee which includes infection control, operational, human resource and other members.

Our clinical & quality staff have developed COVID-19 Policies and a Pandemic Plan to guide our facility teams on prevention and, if required, effective outbreak management.

Each facility has an Outbreak Management Team (OMT) which will work closely with our Infection Control Consultant on key responsibilities in the event of an outbreak.

We communicate directly with families and have been doing so since the Pandemic began.  In addition, we contact the nominated resident representative on any specific matters and are available for families to contact us in the same way.