SURRY COUNTY, N.C. — COVID-19 has been especially hard on residential care facilities - places like nursing homes and hospice care. The virus is especially dangerous for the people who live there. In North Carolina nearly 4,000 people in residential facilities have gotten COVID-19 and sadly, 336 people have died.
Mountain Valley Hospice and Palliative Care in Surry County has been responding to the virus for the last six months. They said preparation was key.
"We had a good stock of all PPE that was needed and we've been very proactive to make sure we have six months to a year supply available for our staff as we move forward in the pandemic," Jenna Campbell, the Director of Quality and Education said.
Mountain Valley started preparing for COVID-19 in February knowing they'd need to do more to protect patients and staff. Now, weeks later they have not had an outbreak and, while they've taken care of patients with the virus, no one has contracted it inside of their facility.
"We were really on top of it already looking at literature from around the world to see what they were doing and implementing some of the things that have worked in other countries before it landed in America," Dr. Glenn Golaszewski, the Chief Medical Officer, said.
Dr. Glenn Golaszewski said their in-patient facility and home care teams were ahead of the game, implementing both old and new protocols.
"So it's the same thing we do every year with the flu but COVID is more deadly than the flu so we have to look at not only who gets COVID but who's going to be at increased risk for the complications and consequently death from COVID," Dr. Golaszewski said.
One of the biggest hurdles has been visitors. Seeing family and friends, is important for both patients and their loved ones.
"If you can imagine you're in a nursing home and you have dementia, which is the most common reason for being there, and all the sudden your loved one can't visit you anymore that is not going to help you out at all," Dr. Golaszewski said.
Staff and guests are screened and masks are required. No more than two people are allowed inside of a patients room at one time and common areas are closed. Visitors go through individual exterior doors in each room and don't go in other parts of the building.
Even still, Campbell says hospice nurses and doctors want to make sure they're connecting their patients with the people they love most.
"We've encouraged our staff when they are able to go into facility patient offered to do FaceTime with the loved ones so at least they're like one can interact with the patient while were there," she said.
It's a monumental task but Dr. Golaszewski and Campbell feel confident in their response to the pandemic and will continue to adapt and fine tune their care to keep everyone safe.