To Whom It May Concern,

Given our inability to allow family members on the property, I thought it would be helpful if I sent out a letter updating our community on how things are going here. Given the seemingly constant stream of bad news in the world, you may be encouraged to hear that our community continues to be free of COVID-19 across all residents and staff members. Even better, nobody is showing any of the symptoms that would give us reason for concern and we continue to have no respiratory infections at all on the property.

We have made some changes over the last few weeks to strengthen our prevention efforts. When it comes to screening visitors, the criteria to be allowed on property has become more strict to prohibit anybody who has visited an airport in the previous 14 days. We are continuing with checking every staff member and visitor temperature, but we have expanded that to include daily monitoring of resident temperatures to catch any early indications of a potential fever. Not only are our staff and visitors required to wash their hands frequently, but we also are helping residents wash their hands every two hours. The state regulators have also made it a requirement to wear a face mask whenever on the property, which we are very closely adhering to.

When it comes to large group gatherings, we have continued to ramp hiring so that we can logistically manage multiple smaller groups. As of today, both activities and dining will be done in multiple smaller groups at the same time, cutting down the size of the groups by up to 75%. While we don’t have anyone showing symptoms, this will help us be prepared for the worst.

As far as morale among residents, there has been little change. The face masks were initially a concern for a few that thought the virus made it onto the property, but after reassurance that we’re safe things have returned to normal. They miss having their friends and family visit, but have been very understanding of why we are doing what we are.

I thank all of our family members for respecting the ban on visitors. We have had a number of families utilize our audio/video offerings to communicate with their loved ones and some in very creative ways. Some have gone so far as to install products in the suites to allow 2-way video communication at will (Alexa Show). A handful of family members have also elected to come to the property and physically visit with their loved one through the fence with plenty of distance between, which is fine by us. I also encourage families to log on to their resident dashboards to see photos of your loved one as well as progress notes and information… we are updating them continuously.

I’ll also use this platform to recognize my staff as being superb in this chaotic time. They recognize the risk and have been laser-focused on being proactive and careful. Productivity has never been better and they have respected our preventative decisions to the letter.

Although the timeline to normalcy seems vague, we hope this temporary phase is brief and we can welcome visitors safely soon. We’re continuing to monitor the situation daily and are adjusting our procedures nearly as frequently as that and continue to work with Sarasota County Emergency Management, Department of Health and the Agency for Health Care Administration. I encourage families to monitor our Facebook and our Instagram (@abanyanalf) for photos and happenings around the property. If there are any questions or concerns, please let us know.

Thanks,

Blake Anderson