10/16/2021

This weekend, we had one staff member test positive for COVID-19 at West Wind Village; therefore, we will initiate point prevalence testing for residents and staff with an exposure to this staff. We will continue testing all non-vaccinated staff twice a week according to the county transmission rate. We are following recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Fortunately, we do not need to quarantine residents at this time unless they exhibit symptoms and group activities and communal dining will continue.

We will once again restrict visitation for all residents to compassionate care and essential care visits at this time. We encourage essential caregivers to get tested before visiting to help keep our residents safe.  Essential visitors will need to pass the screening; if you have any COVID signs or symptoms or an exposure, please refrain from visiting.

Skyview Senior Living continues to test unvaccinated staff twice weekly according to the county transmission rate. At this time they have no known positive cases of COVID-19 and Skyview Senior Living is currently open for indoor visits.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to Paula Henrickson at 320-589-7900, if you have any questions or concerns.  Thank you so much for your cooperation and patience during these challenging times.

10/8/2021

This Tuesday, we had no staff or residents test positive for COVID-19 at West Wind Village and we tested all unvaccinated staff again today. We will continue testing all non-vaccinated staff on Tuesdays and Fridays according to the county transmission rate. We are following recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

We will continue to restrict visitation for all residents to compassionate care and essential care visits at this time until we receive the results from Friday’s testing. We encourage essential caregivers to get tested before visiting to help keep our residents safe.  Essential visitors will need to pass the screening; if you have any COVID signs or symptoms or an exposure, please refrain from visiting or taking your loved one out. 

Skyview Senior Living continues to test unvaccinated staff twice weekly according to the county transmission rate. At this time they have no known positive cases of COVID-19 and Skyview Senior Living is currently open for indoor visits.

The number of positive cases in Stevens County continues to increase and we encourage vaccination and masking to keep yourself, family and friends safe.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to Paula Henrickson at 320-589-7900, if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great weekend! 

10/3/2021

This weekend, we had one additional staff member test positive for COVID-19 at West Wind Village. We will continue testing all non-vaccinated staff on Tuesdays and Fridays according to the county transmission rate. We are following recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

The positive employee was not in the building while contagious; therefore, we will not be quarantining our residents at this time and group activities and communal dining will continue. Residents do not need to be tested at this time.

We will continue to restrict visitation for all residents to compassionate care and essential care visits at this time. We encourage essential caregivers to get tested before visiting to help keep our residents safe.  Essential visitors will need to pass the screening; if you have any COVID signs or symptoms or an exposure, please refrain from visiting.

Skyview Senior Living continues to test unvaccinated staff twice weekly according to the county transmission rate. At this time they have no known positive cases of COVID-19 and Skyview Senior Living is currently open for indoor visits.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to Paula Henrickson at 320-589-7900, if you have any questions or concerns.

9/28/2021

Last evening, we had one additional staff member test positive for COVID-19 at West Wind Village. We will continue testing all non-vaccinated staff on Tuesdays and Fridays according to the county transmission rate. We are following recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Due to the limited risk of transmission from the positive employee, we will not be quarantining our residents at this time and group activities and communal dining will continue. Residents do not need to be tested at this time.

We will continue to restrict visitation for all residents to compassionate care and essential care visits at this time. We encourage essential caregivers to get tested before visiting to help keep our residents safe.  Essential visitors will need to pass the screening; if you have any COVID signs or symptoms or an exposure, please refrain from visiting.

Skyview Senior Living continues to test unvaccinated staff twice weekly according to the county transmission rate. At this time they have no known positive cases of COVID-19 and Skyview Senior Living is currently open for indoor visits.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to Paula Henrickson at 320-589-7900, if you have any questions or concerns.

West Wind Village is currently testing staff, residents, essential caregivers and providers twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Also, when an employee or resident show signs or symptoms of COVID-19 or has had exposure to a confirmed case of COVID-19. At this time, visitation is restricted; visitation will be reevaluated when we have received all of Friday’s testing results.  As of today, we have no residents with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our care center. We are following recommendations from the MDH, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

On Wednesday of this week, President Biden announced that he has directed the CMS to develop emergency regulations requiring Nursing homes to mandate COVID-19 Vaccinations for staff members.  This new requirement is a key component of increasing vaccinations rates and protecting the health and safety of nursing home residents and staff. These vaccines have shown to help prevent COVID-19 and have proven to be effective against the Delta variant.

CMS is expected to release the new regulations in September. At this time we are uncertain of when the vaccine mandate will go into effect or details related to enforcement of the vaccination mandate.  We will honor exemptions for medical and religious reasons, required by law.

We are required to follow all CMS guidelines, but ask for your patience as we wait for more information regarding the key issues needed to move forward. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to Paula at 320-589-7900, if you have any questions or concerns.

Dear Friends and Family of West Wind Village,

Today we were notified one of our employees tested positive for COVID-19. Due to the positive case in our care center, we have begun point-prevalence testing of all staff and residents regardless of vaccination status. This will occur until 2 rounds of testing return with no new positives. We are following recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

MDH requires us to restrict indoor visitation until all testing results return negative. At this time, we can continue Compassionate Care and Essential Care visits. Resident activities, dining, and doctor appointments will also continue in areas not impacted. Residents who were in contact with the staff member will have to quarantine to their rooms.  We encourage our family and friends to reach out to us to schedule closed window visits or virtual visits during this time.

Please follow our Facebook page (@Morris Health Services & @Skyview Senior Living) or our website (www.mhs.sfhs.org) for all COVID updates and information on what is happening inside our care center. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Paula at 320-589-7900, if you have any questions or concerns.

May 7th, 2021

This week, Morris Health Services had no staff or residents test positive for COVID-19; however, a few test results are still pending. We are following recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

• West Wind Village – WWV is open to indoor visits. We encourage visitors to call and schedule visits in advance. We also encourage visitors to become vaccinated and test for COVID.   Please contact Katlyn at 320-589-7960 for more information. 
  • We are happy to report another step in relaxing resident restrictions.  This week the MN Department of Health (MDH) announced that fully vaccinated residents may participate in activities and dining without social distancing and without use of source control masks.  If unvaccinated residents are present, all residents are expected to wear source control masks except while eating, and the unvaccinated residents need to maintain social distancing.  Residents will need to wear masks getting to and from the dining or activity room, but if there are no unvaccinated residents, masks can be removed and vaccinated residents can sit near each other.

• Skyview Senior Living – Both Skyview Court and Plaza are open for indoor visits.  We encourage visitors to call and schedule visits in advance. We also encourage visitors to become vaccinated and test for COVID.  Visits can we scheduled with Sophie at 320-589-4582.

Unfortunately, while cases in long-term care centers remain relatively low due to vaccination efforts, case rates in our local communities have climbed dramatically again. County positivity rates continue to dictate testing frequency and visitation policies. Data published Tuesday show there were 193 people in Minnesota’s hospitals getting intensive care for COVID-19 complications the day before, a rise of 21% from last week.

You are a key partner in keeping our care center open for visiting and ending this pandemic. We encourage you to connect with your primary health care provider or use the Vaccine Locator map (Vaccine Locations / COVID-19 Updates and Information – State of Minnesota (mn.gov)) to find a vaccine appointment near you.

Please follow our Facebook page (@Morris Health Services & @Skyview Senior Living) or our website (www.mhs.sfhs.org) for all COVID updates and information on what is happening inside our care center. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Paula at 320-589-7900, if you have any questions or concerns.

April 23^rd, 2021

This week, Morris Health Services had no staff or residents test positive for COVID-19; however, a few test results are still pending. We are following recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

• West Wind Village – WWV is open to indoor visits. We encourage visitors to call and schedule visits in advance. We also encourage visitors to become vaccinated and test for COVID.   Please contact Katlyn at 320-589-7960 for more information. 

• Skyview Senior Living – Both Skyview Court and Plaza are open for indoor visits.  We encourage visitors to call and schedule visits in advance. We also encourage visitors to become vaccinated and test for COVID.  Visits can we scheduled with Sophie at 320-589-4582.

Unfortunately, while cases in long-term care centers remain relatively low due to vaccination efforts, case rates in our local communities have climbed dramatically again. County positivity rates continue to dictate testing frequency and visitation policies. Data published Tuesday show there were 193 people in Minnesota’s hospitals getting intensive care for COVID-19 complications the day before, a rise of 21% from last week.

You are a key partner in keeping our care center open for visiting and ending this pandemic. We encourage you to connect with your primary health care provider or use the Vaccine Locator map (Vaccine Locations / COVID-19 Updates and Information – State of Minnesota (mn.gov)) to find a vaccine appointment near you.

Please follow our Facebook page (@Morris Health Services & @Skyview Senior Living) or our website (www.mhs.sfhs.org) for all COVID updates and information on what is happening inside our care center. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Paula at 320-589-7900, if you have any questions or concerns.

April 16^th, 2021

This week, Morris Health Services had no staff or residents test positive for COVID-19; however, a few test results are still pending. West Wind Village is currently open for indoor visits and Skyview Senior Living will open for indoor visits on Monday, April 20^th if there are no positive cases.   WWV will continue to test staff weekly and Skyview Senior Living will test both residents and staff next Tuesday.  Stevens County is experiencing an increase in the positivity rate which will impact the frequency of testing staff.  We are following recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Health Department calculations on Friday show 49.8 percent of the state’s adult population has received at least one vaccine dose, with more than one-third completely vaccinated. However, active cases are now at levels not seen since December. Hospitalizations have climbed significantly in the past weeks and are hovering around levels not seen since early January. The age of those newly hospitalized is trending younger than earlier in the pandemic. The majority of people in the hospital now for COVID-19 are younger than 60.

We continue to work on vaccinating our residents and staff. You are a key partner in having our care center open for visiting and ending this pandemic. We encourage you to connect with your primary health care provider or use the Vaccine Locator map (Vaccine Locations / COVID-19 Updates and Information – State of Minnesota (mn.gov)) to find a vaccine appointment near you.

Please follow our Facebook page (@Morris Health Services & @Skyview Senior Living) or our website (www.mhs.sfhs.org) for all COVID updates and information on what is happening inside our care center. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Paula at 320-589-7900, if you have any questions or concerns.

April 8^th, 2021

This week, West Wind Village had no staff or residents test positive for COVID-19; however, several test results are still pending. Therefore, WWV must continue to restrict indoor visitation except compassionate caregivers and essential caregivers for now. However, outdoor visits are allowed. We will continue to test residents and staff weekly on Tuesdays.  We are following recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

This week, MDH stated they will follow the CDC guidelines for national and international travel. If an employee is fully vaccinated they do not need to quarantine after travel. They would need a COVID test 3-5 days after return. 

The percentage of Minnesotans who are vaccinated continues to climb. 41.8% of Minnesotans have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 27% of Minnesotans are considered fully vaccinated. Even with the climbing vaccination rates, Minnesota’s state COVID positivity rate is now 6%, rising one percentage point from last week. Hospitalizations also continue to climb and are now the highest since the Pandemic’s peak in January.

One of the best ways you are able to help our community is to get vaccinated. We continue to encourage you to connect with your primary health care provider or use the Vaccine Locator map (Vaccine Locations / COVID-19 Updates and Information – State of Minnesota (mn.gov)) to find a vaccine appointment near you.

Please follow our Facebook page (@Morris Health Services & @Skyview Senior Living) or our website (www.mhs.sfhs.org) for all COVID updates and information on what is happening inside our care center. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Paula at 320-589-7900, if you have any questions or concerns.