Update: StoryPoint Senior Living’s Commitment During COVID-19

March 11, 2020

For 40 years, our communities have been founded on providing the absolute best care for our residents. Without their trust in us, we wouldn’t be here today, and we are extremely grateful for the opportunity to serve them and create truly personalized experiences every single day.

These experiences across all StoryPoint Group communities include adhering to safety protocols established over years of industry knowledge and experience. These safety protocols are used to protect against the spread of seasonal illnesses and viruses, like COVID-19.

How Can I Protect Myself From COVID-19?

You can do your part to help prevent the spread of germs by:

• Avoiding close contact with those who appear sick (this includes staying home when you’re not feeling well)
• Practicing proper handwashing techniques, which includes washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
• Covering your mouth and nose when you sneeze with a tissue, and then immediately throwing the tissue into the trash
• Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces and objects that are frequently touched and/or that are touched by many people
• Avoiding touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unclean hands

What StoryPoint Is Doing To Protect Residents From COVID-19

As with every flu and virus strand we’ve encountered, all StoryPoint Group communities are diligent in adhering to the same protocols that have prevented and controlled seasonal illnesses and viruses in our communities for the past 40 years. Our existing precautionary measures not only adhere to the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but go beyond these standard protocols. Our measures include:

• We have defined a preventative maintenance process that has tasked each functional department with disinfecting and sanitizing high traffic areas of our communities (handrails, elevators, dining room tables/furniture, etc.) three times per day.
• We utilize CDC-recommended cleaning products for all disinfecting and sanitizing.
• We will continue to enforce our policies around travel protocols and visitor access, which includes a visitor questionnaire to identify any flu-like symptoms.
• All resident events scheduled outside the community and off-site life enrichment outings have been postponed.
• All community activities that require an outside partner have been postponed.
• All business development specialists will be working exclusively outside of the community, and all events involving other professionals will be held off-site.
• We have implemented mandatory reinforcement training for all employees on ceasing the spread of germs and viruses.
• We have temporarily changed our brunch format; we will utilize plated service instead of buffet service.
• We are accommodating residents who request direct meal delivery to their apartments.
• We are utilizing our virus-specific menu planning checklist to ensure nutritional adequacy, which includes foods sufficient in vitamins A and C, and in protein.
• We have distributed a variety of communications on COVID-19 throughout our communities including symptoms to be aware of and how to prevent the spread of germs.
• We have formed a designated internal team dedicated to providing routine updates about COVID-19.

In the event COVID-19 impacts our communities, we’ve formed a staffing task force of voluntary, specially trained employees to travel to affected communities to fill any employee gaps. With every seasonal virus and flu, there isn’t a way to completely prevent the spread of infectious diseases. In events like the one we are currently experiencing, we believe our residents are in the best position to receive the care they need.

By choosing to live with us, our residents’ homes are equipped with specially trained wellness teams that provide personalized care and execute the same temporary separation “quarantined” process we have always used for flu-like symptoms. Our culinary teams will utilize direct meal delivery service as well as our virus-specific menu planning checklist to ensure all nutritional requirements are met. Our life enrichment teams are trained to ensure our residents — even if temporarily separated — are engaged and connected to the rest of the community.

Our settings (housekeeping and maintenance) teams will continue to perform our rigorous cleaning and disinfecting protocols in every area of the community. All of these measures are the same ones we have been following for flu-like viruses for the past 40 years.

For more information about COVID-19 prevention, visit www.cdc.gov/COVID19.