Lutheran Services Carolinas is happy to announce it is adopting new visitation guidelines for its skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilities which loosen restrictions on indoor visitation.
With these new guidelines, if the resident is fully vaccinated, they can choose to have close contact including touch with a visitor while wearing a mask and following hand hygiene before and after.
“I can hug my Mother!” Lutheran Services Carolinas President and CEO Ted Goins said. “After a year of isolation, easing restrictions will drastically improve the quality of life for our residents, and allow all of us all to hug our families.”
Summary of new visitation guidelines:
- All visitors will still be screened upon arrival and required to follow the 3 W’s (Wear a Mask, Wash Your Hands, and Wait 6 ft. Apart).
- The facility may limit indoor visitation if the resident is unvaccinated and the county COVID rate is greater than 10 percent AND less than 70 percent of the facility’s residents fully vaccinated.
- Visitation is not allowed for a resident with a positive COVID diagnosis until they are released from transmission- based precautions, regardless of vaccination status.
- The facility can limit the number of visitors per resident or total number of visitors in the facility at one time in order to follow infection control measures.
- Visitors need to go straight to the room of the resident they are visiting and not wander into other areas. They can take residents outside if the weather is appropriate.
- If there are new COVID cases in the facility, the facility will suspend indoor visitation until everyone is tested. Depending on the results, the facility may have to move to outdoor visitation for some or all residents until the outbreak ends.
Along with the changes to visitation guidelines, communal activities and dining may occur if residents are socially distanced, with 25 people inside and 50 people outside per North Carolina Executive Orders. Residents will be required to wear masks if they are able, except while they are eating.
If you have questions about how visitation will work at a specific community, please contact the administrator/executive director of that community.
Compassionate care and end of life visits will be accommodated on a case by case basis regardless of outbreak status. See your administrator for more information.
