Dwayne Wade, director of environmental services, uses disinfectant wipes to clean common areas at Poet’s Walk Memory Care assisted living facility in Henderson, Wednesday, March 4, 2020.
Sunday, March 8, 2020 | 3 a.m.
As soon as you step into Poet’s Walk, a memory care facility in Henderson, staff will immediately ask you to use the hand sanitizer on the receptionist’s desk before continuing on to the rest of the building. Also on the desk is a sign advising visitors to “please visit another time” if they’re not feeling well.
Caregivers are required to wash their hands frequently for 20 seconds and wipe down door handles every couple hours and are encouraged not to travel. Executive Director Mark Shaffer will even excuse himself from a room if he has to cough or sneeze. Staff’s due diligence on hygiene practices extends to the residents as well. One woman, who was about to give someone a kiss on Wednesday, abruptly stopped, reminding herself of the danger of germs.
These sorts of preventative measures are practiced at Poet’s Walk every flu season, but now more than ever as fears over a potential coronavirus outbreak might endanger the vulnerable residents in the facility’s care.
The Southern Nevada Health District announced the first presumptive positive case of coronavirus in a Clark County resident on Thursday. The patient, who had underlying conditions, is a man in his 50s who is now hospitalized and in isolation.
Health officials say older patients are particularly vulnerable to the virus. The medical journal JAMA released a study last month analyzing more than 72,000 coronavirus cases in mainland China and found that older patients are particularly vulnerable to the virus, with those between ages 70 and 79 — the age demographic that makes up more than half of the population in nursing facilities in the United States — having an 8% fatality rate, compared to the virus’ overall 3.4% fatality rate.
“We’re very aware we’re working with an at-risk population,” said Melony Rodgers director of resident care. “Seniors are at a higher risk of infection for colds and viruses, so it’s always on our radar. The coronavirus is just making us more diligent.”
The added diligence comes after the emergence of the new illness at the Life Care Center, a nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., which has killed at least 10 people, infecting at least half a dozen others as of Friday.
Shaffer said the news broke his heart. The animated man, while upbeat and positive around the residents he cares so deeply for, will tell you behind closed doors that it’s difficult for him to fathom a similar scenario happening at Poet’s Walk.
“It’s heartbreaking — you feel like you failed them when you’re supposed to be here to protect them,” he said.
Poet’s Walk caters to residents who are in their later years, have developed some sort of cognitive disease like Alzheimer’s or dementia. The facility isn’t just meant to keep residents safe, it’s a place to give them “meaningful purpose,” Shaffer said. Magazines and photographs from the 1950s and '60s can be found all over the 60-apartment community, taking residents back to “moments of joy” in their youth.
In the facility’s center ballroom, dubbed “Main Street” by the staff and residents, “La Vie en Rose” can be heard playing softly in the background as residents play checkers and help themselves to the free ice cream bar.
Phillip Robb, director of resident engagement, said staffers like to take residents on field trips to places like the Hoover Dam, M Resort and Ethel M Chocolate Factory but will be temporarily halting those activities until the virus is contained. He said alternatives aren’t difficult to find, however, and that residents enjoy going to nearby parks to feed ducks just as much.
Poet’s Walk isn’t the only care facility exercising such precautions. The American Health Care Association, which represents 13,500 nonprofit and for-profit facilities for seniors and disabled people, updated its guidelines recently in response to the outbreak in Washington. Among them: outlining strategies in frequent hand sanitation among staff and visitors and separating those who are ill from the rest of the population.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that regulates 15,700 nursing homes in the United States, also released updated guidelines Wednesday.
Shaffer is hands-on in his approach to preventive measures, adding that engaging with staff and residents is the best thing he can do to keep things in order.
“The smartest thing I can do right now is practice leadership by walking around,” he said.
