Dear Family and Friends,
You may have seen the recent press conference regarding nursing homes in the State of NH potentially moving through the reopening phases. We are encouraged by this news, while also remaining cautious. While Rockingham county needs to improve its case count per 100,000 population for nursing homes within the county to enter the phases, we believe this will happen soon. Our understanding is that when we have been given the “green light,” we may be able to offer limited communal dining and activities to our residents. Therefore, we are proactively working on what this may look like for the Edgewood Center. The “re-opening” does not change visitation within nursing homes at this point. As a result, we will continue to offer window, virtual and outside visits.
We understand how difficult the separation has been and we very much appreciate your patience as we further streamline the outside visit process while keeping our resident’s safety top of mind.
We will continue posting the visitation schedule for the following week by Thursday at noon of the preceding week. For the time being, we anticipate the schedule continuing with times on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. This means that there are 15 outside visits per week per wing or 30 for the facility in total. Due to this limited availability and the popularity of our residents, we ask the following:
- If you had a visit during the week, please wait until Monday of the following week to access the schedule. This will allow families who have not had a visit time to sign up for one.
- If possible, please coordinate visits with other family members. Our residents have many family and friends who want to see them and this will help avoid any double booking.
We will open up more times as we are able, keeping in mind that the state requires the facility to ensure the following: 1) COVID-free status 2) proper staffing levels to conduct the visits and 3) adequate PPE.
We have had several requests for weekend availability. If you are absolutely not able to schedule an outside visit during the week, please contact me directly.
Additionally, the State of NH Department of Public Health recently revised its requirements for out of state visitors. Specifically, people visiting from out of state will not be required to quarantine prior to an outside visit. However, for visitors from outside NH, Maine and VT, if any public transportation was used within 14-days, the outside visit will need to be rescheduled.
Here’s a recap of the visitation process:
- Window Visits: Window visits may happen anytime except when outside visits are scheduled. Therefore, there will be no window visits Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays from 10:00 am-4:00 pm. Please call the facility one hour before you would like to have a window visit so that we can make sure your loved one is ready. Once you arrive, please call the wing on which your loved one resides (East Wing: (603) 766-2311 South/West Wing: (603) 766-2360) before exiting your car, to let us know you are here. We will make sure the window is closed and there are no residents outside in your path. We ask that you limit the number of people coming at one time for a window visit to five people.
- Virtual Visits: These are through Facetime or Zoom. Please use the following link to schedule a virtual visit. Virtual Visit Sign-Up
- Outside Visits: Please use the following link to schedule an Outside Visit Sign Up
We highly encourage you to send these links to anyone who might want to visit your loved one. How wonderful that our residents have so many people who love them and want to see them!
Yours truly,
Patricia J. Cummings, LNHA, MHA, LNA
Administrator
