Coronavirus poses biggest threat to elderly. How are SLO senior facilities preparing?
Six seniors sat around a table, talking, laughing and playing their weekly game of Pinochle — paying no mind to The Tribune paper sitting one table over that read “Cal Poly delays spring classes, cancels events due to coronavirus.”
The senior center lobby was otherwise empty.
“You came on a day when everyone got scared away,” senior center board member James Horner said.
San Luis Obispo County declared a local and public health emergency Friday morning, hours before local school districts began announcing a wave of closures. There are still no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in San Luis Obispo County, according to the Public Health Department, but the county is preparing.
Although the senior center remains open, the weekly bridge class was canceled that morning as a result of Public Health Department recommendations. President of the Senior Center Executive Board Joan Drake said the center is currently providing extra hand sanitizer and anti-bacterial wipes. They also have some masks on standby.
“If worst comes to worst, we would close the center down,” Drake said. “But, hopefully, it won’t come down to that.”
How seniors feel about coronavirus
Horner, along with others at the Senior Center on Friday, feel that the fear and preemptive closures have been unnecessary, even though they are in the population most at-risk from the virus.
“Everything is measured by the yardstick of ‘abundance of caution,’” Horner said. “But if we took that to it’s logical conclusion, we’d all wrap ourselves in bubble wrap and stay in the bathroom.”
Pinochle player Pat Gordon said she hopes the center will remain open. And Horner said if he can help it, he will ensure that it does.
“I’m here, and I’ll be here next week unless they close the Senior Center, which I hope they do not,” Gordon said. “It’s a place to go, and that’s very needed by the senior population and it’s important to stay connected, especially for seniors.”
A vulnerable population
The center in San Luis Obispo is not the only senior facility that has seen changes in the number of people walking through the door.
There are more than 50 senior centers, assisted living homes and nursing homes in San Luis Obispo County. And about 20% of San Luis Obispo County’s population is 65 or older, according to census data.
The fatality rate of people over the age of 80 who contract the virus is 15% or greater according to preliminary data cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nursing homes are especially dangerous spreading grounds for viruses like COVID-19.
A Sacramento Bee investigation found that 976 separate facilities of the 1,200 nursing homes in California have been cited with some sort of infection prevention and control violation in the past two years. Documents show most of those violations were minor, including failing to wash hands or improperly handling food trays.
Normally, those kinds of shortcomings might not be alarming, but even basic sanitation like hand-washing becomes critical with a virus that is particulary dangerous for elderly people.
That threat came into stark focus earlier this month when COVID-19 ravaged a nursing home in Washington state.
As of March 12, 22 confirmed coronavirus deaths of 27 total in Washington have been associated with a single home, Life Care Center in Kirkland, which was cited last year for several deficiencies.
How SLO County nursing homes are affected
In SLO County, Public Health Department Health Care Access Division Manager Michelle Shoresman said the department has been in touch with all long-term care facilities and have sent guideline documents.
The American Health Care Association advised all nursing homes and assisted living facilities to limit visitation entries and restrict individuals who have COVID-19 symptoms or have traveled to areas exposed to coronavirus. They also recommend that facilities requrie all staff and visitors to wash their hands upon entering.
Compass Health — which owns an operates the nursing homes Casa de Flores, Wyndham Residence, Arroyo Grande Care Center, Bayside Care Center, Bella Vista Transitional Care Center, Danish Care Center, Mission View Health Center, San Luis Transitional Care, and Vineyard Hills Health Center — is taking precautions in advance of a potential outbreak, according to Bella Vista Administrator Adam Bramwell.
Bramwell said the directive is the same across all Compass Health facilities.
“Right now, as it currently stands, our No. 1 goal is to keep the Compass Health residence free of the coronavirus,” Bramwell said.
Compass Health facilities were not preventing visitation as of Thursday, but Adam Bramwell said all facilities are recommending that all visitors postpone their visits. Bramwell said they have called all family members who visit frequently and explained their recommendation.
“We’re having those hard conversations ... because it’s the right thing to do for our fragile community,” Bramwell said.
Bramwell said they have canceled all nonessential outside visitors brought in for events. A majority of Compass Health residents cannot travel and rely on activities being brought into the facility for entertainment.
That being said, Bramwell said most residents understand their caution and are responding well.
“We will try to find ways to make life fun still,” Bramwell said.
Bramwell said currently there is no policy restricting employees from traveling out of the area. However, Compass Health is conducting a companywide audit to see how many employees are abroad or were planning to travel abroad.
Compass Health is following the CDC and Public Health Department recommendations and telling all employees to wash their hands upon entering the facility. They are also monitoring employees for shortness of breath, coughs and fever.
The health department asks any hospital that receives a long-term care resident transfer who has a confirmed case for COVID-19 to reach out to the department before the patient is discharged, if the patient no longer requires hospitalization.
