Restrictions loosening at Share Convalescent Home

• 3-star rating achieved

 

February 28, 2021



With all but one of the residents finishing their coronavirus vaccinations, Share Convalescent Home in Alva has been able to loosen some restrictions. Administrator Kelly Parker said the one exception on vaccinations had already experienced Covid-19.

One new activity is walkie-talkie bingo. The nursing home purchased 20 walkie-talkies and is finding creative ways to use them. Last week, the residents were able to return to the dining room for meals and group activities in limited numbers. Parker said the nursing home is also scheduling visitors to come into the building to see family members.

Parker was proud to tell the Alva Hospital Authority (AHA) trustees Tuesday that Share Convalescent has achieved a 3-star rating from Medicare Nursing Home Compare. Less than a year ago, the nursing home was rated as 1-star. He expressed pride in his staff for their work in achieving this goal.

During January, the nursing home was “really overrun with Covid,” Parker said. They had five deaths either directly or indirectly attributable to the virus. This took quite a toll on employee morale. One of the ways they are coping with this is the establishment of a memorial wall in the chapel. Staff members can use the wall to write about their memories of deceased residents. Later these memories will be share with family members.

Parker said overall, staff morale is good. He provided the results of a 90 day employee satisfaction survey that exceeds the WeCareConnect benchmarks in three of the six categories. Highest rates were 93 percent satisfaction with teamwork, 93 percent feel appreciated and 97 percent organization advocate. He explained that organization advocate meant employees would recommend Share Convalescent to their friends who are looking for employment.

Parker reported the resident census dropped from 43 in December to 37 in January. However, the nursing home had their lowest ever rate of agency staffing in January since Parker has been the administrator. Agency staffing costs more than filling vacancies with employees but is needed to keep the required numbers of healthcare workers per resident.

Parker, Rita Goodrich and Teirna Adair have completed eight weeks of quality improvement training with the Covid Action Network (CAN) which is being conducted by the Oklahoma Dementia Care Network in conjunction with OU Health Sciences Center. They will receive a $6,000 grant/reimbursement for participating in at least 13 of the 16 weeks in the program.

Covid-19 incentive pay for staff will cease with the pay period ending Feb. 20 except for those directly involved in the care of Covid positive patients. Paid sick leave for Covid-19 ceased on Feb. 11. All eligible staff members have had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated as of Jan. 28.

Parker reported the nurse call system average response time during January was just below four minutes. Seventy percent of calls were answered in five minutes or less.

Due to the recent bad weather, the engineer’s visit to look at the HVAC system was delayed. He was expected to be in Alva before the weekend. The engineer will then provide a proposal of how to proceed.

The code alert and door security systems from Alliance Monitoring were expected to be completed soon. The company was on site at the time of the Alva Hospital Authority meeting Tuesday.

A video of the entire AHA meeting may be viewed at ww.AlvaReviewCourier.com.

 

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