Nursing homes anxiously await in-person visits

BRUNSWICK — For the last four weeks, Brunswick's Willowood Care Center has been free of COVID-19, but returning to in-person visits — something residents and staff desperately want — is not that easy, nursing home officials said. Barb Bandagski, director of admissions and marketing at the nursing home, said everyone who has wanted to be vaccinated has been able to do so, with more than 80 percent of the residents currently living there and numerous staff members receiving the inoculations, and the facility is readily accepting new residents, a promising sign. The only thing missing? In-person visits. Willowood, 1186 Hadcock Road, and all other nursing homes throughout Medina County currently are held up on reopening for in-person visits, outside of compassionate care visits, due to the COVID-19 infection rate in the county. "It's still in the works because Medina County is still showing red," Bandagski said. "It has nothing to do at the facility level. Most of the facilities, I believe, are waiting for this. We are prepped and ready to go as soon as we can get this down to 10 percent." Bandagski added that whenever in-person visits become a reality, the plan is to use an adjacent, large activity room with one entrance for families to come in, visit with their loved ones and leave to prevent circulating throughout the building. Due to federal guidelines put in place in September and remaining in effect, nursing homes and assisted living facilities only are allowed to begin in-person visits if they meet three criteria: They must have no new onset of COVID-19 cases in the last 14 days, must not be conducting outbreak testing and if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports the COVID-19 positivity rate in the county at less than 10 percent. CMS separates counties into three colors — green, yellow and red — based COVID-19 positivity rate. Green counties are those with less than five percent positivity or fewer than 20 test in 14 days, yellow counties are those with a positivity percentage between five and 10 or fewer than 500 positive test and red is signaled with 2,000 test per 100,000 people and greater than 10 percent positivity over 14 days. Red counties are those with a greater than 10 percent positivity rate and are not able to hold in-person visits. Medina County is one of 21 counties statewide showing red on the CMS map. Only six counties statewide are in the green. "Those are the federal regulations that went into effect in September," Gov. Mike DeWine said Monday. "They override, really, anything that the state does. Nursing homes have to comply with those federal regulations." Bandagski is hopeful with cases going down statewide, the same soon will be true for Medina County. "I'm thinking optimistically," she said. "I'm trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The cases are lowering at the state level so I would hope this has to trickle down locally, demographically, for us." The state is seeing signs of progress. There is a downward trend when it comes to COVID-19 hospitalizations, particularly in the 80 and older group, which was among the first groups to become eligible for the vaccine. In December, those older Ohioans made up more than 25 percent of Ohio's COVID hospitalizations. This month, that number has dropped to about 18 percent. Ohio also is seeing a decline in COVID cases among nursing home residents. In the past week, Ohio had 369 new nursing home cases, compared to 2,832 new cases in one week in December. As part of the new COVID-19 Vaccine Maintenance Program, Ohio will continue vaccinating new nursing home residents, new staff hires and those who have recently decided to take the vaccine. Elmcroft of Medina is doing another round of vaccinations of its residents and associates today. This is the third clinic hosted at the facility. "Elmcroft is grateful that our communities are some of the first to receive the vaccine. We will continue to do our part to help end this global pandemic and get our communities back to normal," Laura Scavinski, executive director of Elmcroft of Medina, said in a statement. "The vaccine is just one piece of the solution in stopping the spread of COVID-19." Due to the reduction in cases reported in long-term care facilities, Ohio's Veterans Homes in Sandusky and Georgetown have resumed accepting new residents, and certain restrictions on visitors at state behavioral health hospitals will be lifted beginning March 1. Another type of visit both Bandagski and DeWine are pushing for are compassionate care visits, which allow family members or other visitors to provide comfort, support and assistance to a residents whose wellbeing is suffering or at risk. DeWine provided a noncomprehensive list of compassionate-care visit reasons Monday. These include visiting someone who had been living with a family member and is struggling to adjust to living in a facility, visiting someone who is grieving the death of a friend or family member and visiting a resident whose dementia has dramatically progressed. "These compassionate care visits aren't just for nursing homes," DeWine said. "They also include assisted living facilities." In the meantime, Bandagski said the facility has been resorting to window visits and iPad visits to provide some type of connection between residents and their loved ones. And while it isn't the type of interaction she hopes can soon happen, Bandagski and the residents continue to enjoy any type of face time possible. "We are encouraging the family to do as many window visits as the family can do," she said. "It's encouraging to the residents and the families." Contact reporter Jack Kopanski at (330) 721-4063 or jkopanski@medina-gazette.com.