LTC visitation no longer limited

Despite a few local COVID-19 infections leading to stays at Crook County Memorial Hospital over recent days, visitation is still open for hospital inpatients at this time – and is no longer limited for visits to the long-term care unit. However, Lyons notes that visitation did have to shut down temporarily last week due to an outbreak of RSV, a common respiratory virus.

As of the beginning of this week, the outbreak is considered contained.

“We have had no further cases and are opening up to full visitation in the LTC,” says Micki Lyons, CEO for Crook County Medical Services District (CCMSD).

The removal of restrictions in the LTC, says Lyons, is because of the interim final rule published in November by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which requires staff at facilities certified by Medicare and Medicaid to be fully vaccinated by January 4.

This includes hospitals and long-term care facilities, and applies to both clinical and non-clinical staff and even contractors, if they use shared facilities. Though Governor Mark Gordon announced on Monday that a preliminary injunction had been placed on the rule, Lyons says this will not change plans for the LTC.

“Visitation in the long-term care will no longer be limited, but there are still regulations that need to be followed,” says Lyons.

“The CDC’s core principles of infection control still need to be followed, including masks, social distancing and appropriate hand hygiene.”

Visitation began to reopen again after Crook County’s hospital enjoyed a period with no COVID-19 inpatients whatsoever between November 7 and 19. Shortly after, though, the inpatient numbers were briefly back up to two, rising to three on Saturday.

“We have had a few positive inpatients over the past week, but things still seem to be settling down from where they were a month ago,” Lyons says.

Still, Crook County Medical Services District continues to keep a close eye on the infection rate within the county, which has been fluctuating since fall. The original goal was to wait for the percentage of all tests that come back positive to drop below 10%, which is the threshold at which requirements change for things such as testing within the long-term care.

However, the rate has yet to drop that far – although things are still considerably better than the 38% positivity rate in late September.

“It appears that the positivity rate for Crook County remains high at 22% so we are definitely not out of the woods,” Lyons says.