As a center that’s home to people most at risk of experiencing health issues related to COVID-19, Country Oaks Care Center has been forced to make a lot of changes to how it operates over the last month and a half.
Public health orders have prohibited visitors from entering skilled nursing facilities that provide care to elderly residents who often have underlying health conditions. John Henning, the center’s owner, said this has been one of the most difficult changes for residents.
“Some are used to having family visit every day or every couple days,” Henning said.
To try to make this easier on residents, the center has set up a bench outside of the facility’s lobby windows where family members can sit so residents can see them while talking on the phone. Additionally, Henning said the center has purchased tablet computers that residents can use to video chat with family members.
These adaptations help, Henning said, but the process has still been hard on residents. This is especially true for the roughly 30 percent of the center’s residents who have dementia.
“They think their family has deserted them,” Henning said. “Families do call, but because their memories are impaired, they can’t remember things for more than an hour.”
Aside from prohibiting visitors, the center has also been forced to cancel its group activities and limit the amount of people who eat in the center’s dining room at one time. Henning said this has led to most residents not leaving their rooms.
As a facility that offers short-term rehabilitative care as well as long-term care, Country Oaks has continued to receive patients being discharged from hospitals during this time. When a new patient arrives, the resident is isolated in a room for a week to see if he or she develops any COVID-19 symptoms prior to being near other residents.
While the center is still accepting patients, its numbers are down because hospitals haven’t been performing elective surgeries during this time—although that’s beginning to change. The center, which has the capacity for 57 residents, had 43 as of April 1.
So far all of these limitations have produced the desired effect, Henning said. There have been no COVID-19 cases in the center, and no patients have displayed symptoms that have warranted testing.
Throughout the state, more than 4,000 residents in skilled nursing facilities have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 600 have died, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.
Given that the residents who live at the center are most at risk of becoming severely ill from the virus, Henning said he knows facilities similar to his will be among the last to return to a sense of normalcy. Until then, he said, staff and residents could always receive more masks if anyone is looking to donate—but otherwise the center is ready to ride this out.
“We’re just coping the best we can, and everybody is on board with the whole process,” Henning said. “If we all stick together, then we’ll make it through.”
Highlights
• After temporarily pausing performing elective surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dignity Health Central Coast announced on May 4 that its hospitals are resuming scheduling these procedures. Hospitals will slowly schedule these surgeries, and if there’s an increase in COVID-19 cases, restrictions will be reinstated.
• The city of Santa Maria Public Library recently used grants from the Orcutt Friends of the Library and California State Library to purchase additional electronic content, such as e-books and e-audiobooks. Additionally, residents with library cards can access the databases ancestry.com and kanopy.com for free. Learn more about the library’s offerings at cityofsantamaria.org/library.
Staff Writer Zac Ezzone wrote this week’s Spotlight. Send tips to spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 7-14, 2020.