THE CORNERSTONES OF OUR PANDEMIC APPROACH

The Cornerstones of our COVID-19 Response include Health & Safety, Clean+ Commitment, Family, Friends & Fun and the Pace & Path Ahead. We require our associates to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

 

Health & Safety

The health and wellbeing of our residents and associates are our top priorities. Reducing the risk of infection is critical to maintaining healthy and happy communities. To accomplish this, we continue to follow best practice standards from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for proper safety and sanitation methods. If circumstances change in a community, we are fully prepared to increase restrictions for a limited amount of time or relax them in accordance with our protocols and guidance from state and local departments of health.

Eclipse Senior Living hosted a series of COVID-19 vaccination clinics in its communities for residents and associates to access the vaccine and immunize for the disease. The clinics became celebrations in the communities. With the vaccine now widely and readily available, we continue to strongly encourage all who can receive the vaccine to please do so. Locate an approved vaccination clinic here.

As an added precaution, Eclipse requires its associates to be vaccinated for COVID-19 by October 1 due to the risks COVID-19 poses to seniors. A large percentage of associates have been leading the way on getting immunized against the virus regardless of the requirement.

You can learn more about our efforts to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations here.

Anyone who has had the flu shot, shingles or other illnesses knows how miserable it can be. However, as people age or have a variety of chronic conditions, viruses causing these illnesses can become deadly. That’s why we encourage all who can receive the flu shot and other vaccinations to do so – they help reduce the risk of viruses like influenza and could be the difference between an illness with mild symptoms or hospitalization or worse.

Learn about our upcoming flu shot clinics.

Deep Cleans

In addition to regular cleaning practices, each community acquired deep clean misting equipment to clean and sanitize all or parts of a community. This machine allows communities to have added cleaning impact as often as they need to. The solution used in the mister is EPA approved and used in a variety of health and wellness settings. These enhanced deep cleaning protocols not only reduce risk, they also promote peace of mind for our residents and their loved ones.

Preventing the potential spread of COVID-19 starts at the front door. We have designated locations for all who come into the community including staff, visitors and emergency personnel. This ensures that everyone who does enter has their temperature taken, completes a questionnaire developed by the CDC and is evaluated for entry. We use an electronic screening program to make the process faster and easier for all staff, residents and visitors.

Community associates keep a close eye for symptoms among residents. However, we encourage residents to report any symptoms and ask families to remain at home and not visit if they have symptoms.

Visitors who enter an Eclipse Senior Living community are asked to properly wear a face mask while in the shared spaces of the community. Associates are supplied with all the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks, gloves, gowns, and eye protection and receive ongoing training in their proper use, sanitization and disposal protocols. Each property also keeps a reserve supply of masks for use by those who do not have their own.

Testing
Eclipse Senior Living has a comprehensive approach to testing at our senior living communities. We ensure new associates hired and residents moving into the communities are tested for COVID-19. If COVID-19 is identified in the community, we will test associates and residents as part of our isolation and quarantine efforts.

For states with mandated testing policies, communities will continue to follow the testing as prescribed by the state. Eclipse’s testing will continue to be provided by Genetworx. In areas where local health departments have established specific testing requirements, we adhere to those guidelines. What’s more, we work with a well respected national lab and have also received test kits from the federal and state governments to use when testing is necessary.

When testing is necessary, we consult with the resident’s primary care physician and with state and local governments as needed. New residents are required to be tested upon moving into our community, and if necessary additional steps may be taken to ensure a safe and comfortable transition for new residents.

While the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine has significantly reduced positive test results and relaxed how we respond, if a community is notified of a positive test result, we have well documented protocols to follow which include:

• Contact tracing
• Case notification
• Swiftly and safely isolating anyone with positive test results for the proper amount of time.
• Asking residents to quarantine to their apartments for their own safety for the proper amount of time if asked to do so by the department of health.
• Adding additional PPE and checks for symptoms
• Alerting families and doctors of any resident or associate testing positive
• Providing a general communication to all residents and their families about increased precautions we’re taking if needed.
• Assigning specific associates to only serve those residents testing positive for COVID-19.

Our goal is to control the spread of infection, reduce risk to the community and monitor for changes. Depending on the state, other precautions may be added. After a brief period of time with no additional positive test activity, the community will cautiously relax heightened restrictions put in place.

Lastly, all of these initiatives are aligned with our general Quality Care program designed to assess, personalize, and implement a supportive care program for each resident living in assisted living and memory care. Recently, we’ve implemented a new review component that is a regular multidisciplinary, structured conversation among the community team based on research that focuses in on continuous fine tuning of personalized care and care outcomes.

Return to top of page.

 

 

Clean+ Commitment

Every one of our Eclipse Senior Living communities have had rigorous cleaning programs in place since before the pandemic, but in response to COVID-19 we expanded our housekeeping and maintenance practices to enhance safety and mitigate risk of spreading the virus.

All Eclipse Senior Living communities follow CDC guidelines and use EPA approved cleaning products to disinfect and sanitize surfaces and community areas at regular intervals throughout the day. Ongoing training is also critically important. Senior maintenance and housekeeping associates have gone through national training focused on prevention and control, hand hygiene, use of PPE, understanding environmental controls and processes to ensure occupational health and safety.

What’s more, each of our regional facilities directors has earned a certificate of educational completion by a highly regarded national infection control training organization. Course work covered introduction to infection control, transmission, prevention and control, hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, environmental controls, occupational health and safety, and sepsis.

Visitors who enter an Eclipse Senior Living community are asked to properly wear a face mask while in the shared spaces of the community. Associates are supplied with all the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks, gloves, gowns, and eye protection and receive ongoing training in their proper use, sanitization and disposal protocols. Each property also keeps a reserve supply of masks for use by those who do not have their own.

In addition to regular cleaning practices, each community acquired deep clean misting equipment to clean and sanitize all or parts of a community. This machine allows communities to have added cleaning impact as often as they need to. The solution used in the mister is EPA approved and used in a variety of health and wellness settings. These enhanced deep cleaning protocols not only reduce risk, they also promote peace of mind for our residents and their loved ones.

Residents and staff are educated on the importance of frequent handwashing and sanitization, and ample supplies of soap and hand-sanitizer are available at all times. In addition, frequently touched surfaces such as door handles, handrails, light switches and bathroom fixtures are thoroughly wiped down and sprayed with disinfectant after use or at regular intervals throughout each day.

In some communities, air purifiers and enhanced filtration devices have been installed to improve air quality and help reduce the risk of airborne transmission. Residents are encouraged to utilize personal air filtration and purification devices in their apartments if desired. What’s more air exchange frequency has increased in each community and we change out air filters at least every other week.

Return to top of page.

 

 

Family, Friends & Fun

Our goal is to create engaging, social community environments regardless of any limitations we have in place on how we can do that. Meals are the best time to socialize, so we are working carefully to fully restore the dining room experience and offer great meals with great conversation.

As we continue to follow CDC guidelines and local health agency recommendations, all communities have resumed in-person visits where it is safe to do so. Many of these take place in a designated visitor space indoors or outdoors. While visitors are subject to screenings, must properly wear face coverings and maintain physical distancing (if unvaccinated), these in-person visits are a favorite of residents and loved ones.

While nothing can replace in-person interaction, virtual visits have remained a great way to connect with a loved one “on the fly” and for adult children not living nearby. Even with in-person visitation now available in most locations, virtual visits are still popular. We sanitize devices after each use.

Depending on public health department guidance, we can offer a variety of engaging and social programs for residents to connect with one another. Visit our Facebook page to see all the great things going on in our communities. 

We know meals are the best times to socialize. As our dining rooms are opened, dining options have been enhanced to follow CDC and health guidelines, including spacing between seating, adding more dining times, reducing the number of people at a table and ongoing cleaning after each use. Residents always have the option to enjoy meals in their apartments too. As a situation could change in a community, we’re fully prepared to increase or relax limitations on the dining room based on guidance from the public health department.

Our communities typically offer daily scheduled transportation services to our residents for appointments, errands and social outings. We increase or relax limitations as needed based on guidance from state regulations and the situation at each community. Any transportation we offer follows protocols based on CDC guidelines including reduce capacity, proper mask wearing and physical distancing.

 Return to top of page.

 

 

The Pace & Path Ahead

Our goal is to safely reduce limitations at our senior living communities to completely restore the experience residents enjoy. However, think of the relaxation of limitations as more of a dial than a switch. We closely monitor the changing guidelines from federal, state and local public health authorities as they recommend dialing up or back limitations based on a variety of factors including community vaccination rates, county and community COVID-19 positivity rates, county hospitalization rates and more.

We are committed to providing the same level of care, safety and peace of mind we have always strived for at every Eclipse Senior Living community. We continue to offer a variety of amenities and services with specific and appropriate protocols in place to help reduce risks of COVID-19.

We continue to monitor and implement the latest information and recommendations from the CDC, state regulators and local public health departments. What’s more, we’re committed to providing updates to residents and families regarding changes at the community as we work hard to revitalize our community experience.

Communication is critical right now, as we want residents and their families informed about the decisions we make and why. As situations change, we’ll keep residents and families informed through letters, email, our website and phone calls. What’s more, we encourage feedback to the community executive director on how we’re doing.

Running a senior living community requires a lot of expertise – from dining to maintenance, from wellness to resident interests. Eclipse Senior Living is proud of the diverse, talented team it brings together at each of its communities and who operate from the company’s support center. These diverse backgrounds, wealth of knowledge and tried and true experience our associates bring, especially in times like these, have enabled us to move faster and better to support the needs of residents and associates at each Eclipse community.

These extraordinary times have called for extraordinarily talented and compassionate people with diverse backgrounds. We celebrate that diversity here at Eclipse, and firmly believe it makes us stronger. The past few months haven’t been easy – so we are focused on associate wellness and engagement. #eclipsestrong.

Return to top of page.