October 9, 2020

As of October 7th, we have no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our care center. We continue to routinely test staff weekly. We follow all recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

MDH is developing guidelines based on the recently issued CMS guidance on how we our can safety re-open our setting to visitors and continue to protect the health of our residents and staff. We plan to revise our current visitation policies to accommodate the MDH and CMS changes as soon as possible and distribute to residents and families.

We appreciate your patience as we take time to evaluate and implement the guidance so that we can safely resume indoor visitation. These requirements not only apply to our ability to resume indoor visitation but also identify triggers for when we may need to restrict visitation. Restricting visitation may happen if we experience a positive case of COVID-19 among our residents and staff or if our broader community falls into a higher risk category.

We deeply appreciate the sacrifices you made to limit the impact of COVID-19 on our community and your patience as we prepare our setting to host safe indoor visitation. Our entire team looks forward to seeing you again. Families, friends and volunteers are a core fabric of what makes our community so special. In the meantime, we remind you to take advantage of outdoor visits, window visits, and the ability to connect residents and their loved ones through alternative communication, such as FaceTime, Zoom and Skype.

Looking for ways to help? We have a variety of positions available with flexible scheduling and on the job training. For more information or to apply, visit www.jobswithus.org.

Thank you again for being partners with us in fighting the COVID-19 virus. Your messages of support, prayers, and caring is important to those working to keep our residents healthy and safe. Without a doubt, there will be more challenges ahead, and we continue to ask for your patience as we make adjustments and implement this next phase in our visitation. Please follow our Facebook page (@Heritage Manor Health Center) or our website (www.sfhs.org) for all COVID updates and information on what is happening inside our care center. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Chester Fishel, Administrator, at cfishel@hmhc.sfhs.org, or by phone at 218-274-7711 if you have any questions or concerns.