This week marks the first anniversary of the declaration that the United States was in a public health emergency with the coronavirus. The US as well as the state of Arizona declared a state of emergency and vowed to limit community spread on March 11. That was one year ago. Twelve months. 366 days. 8,784 hours. 527,040 minutes. In some respects, it seems like a lifetime. I looked back at the first letter that I sent to you on March 13. I focused on education – none of us knew much about the novel coronavirus then. I focused on safety and security of our staff and residents, on being transparent, on cleaning and sanitization. We offered toilet tissue for our residents in our “Grab and Go” section of the Bistro. And I emphasized that this was a “temporary” situation, and soon we would be back to normal. There was so much unknown about the coronavirus and so much uncertainly about how life would look like during the next month – let alone one year later.
Mostly behind the scenes, our Beatitudes Strong team sprang into action. I am so proud of how everyone pitched in, doing jobs they never dreamed of doing. Foremost in our minds was safety. We all took turns at our screening pod in the Agelink Parking lot. We cleaned everything. We went grocery shopping and created delivery services. We devoured all the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and prevention and the State of Arizona – some of the guidance was conflicting, so we consulted with colleagues, medical and infectious disease specialists and public health experts to figure out what was best for our residents, staff and their families. We learned the difference between a “good” mask and a “bad” mask and how to wear them. Words and phrases we rarely used before became much more common in our everyday language – pandemic, efficacy, swabs, transmissibility, antigen vs antibody, isolation, quarantine, community spread, asymptomatic, social distancing, contact tracing.
As Beatitudes Campus shifted and adapted, we learned that the secret to creating community for our residents and family members was virtual – video, email and text messages. We learned, in real time, how to create new avenues of engagement. Just in the past year, we have produced more than 850 videos, from the “BeInspired” TV show (~185 segments), to daily Success Matters videos (~260 segments), to spiritual life services and Bible studies (~200 segments), to exercise classes (~100 segments). We wrote and delivered nearly 75,000 individual CEO letters and messages door-to-door to residents, we created web pages on our website dedicated to COVID-19, we created dashboards of how the campus was faring during the pandemic and set up a special email dedicated to questions surrounding the pandemic and the campus.
This past year has transformed nearly every aspect of our world. Living through a global pandemic has driven dramatic shifts in how we approach life. And, I think that we are all stronger as we rebuild and remake our community in the year ahead.
Last week, we announced our phased-in approach to openings within the campus, and it has worked well this week. Because we have a high percentage of our residents vaccinated, we are relaxing some of the masking rules for Independent Living residents. Visitors, even under 18, may visit their loved ones in their homes or outdoors in groups of five. If you are outside or in your own home with five or less people who are vaccinated, you may take off your mask; however, all visitors and family members will need to wear their mask when walking throughout campus. All unvaccinated individuals – residents or visitors – must be masked at all times. All staff will be masked at all times. Specific guidance can be found on our website: https://beatitudescampus.org/beatitudes-family/ and click on “Visitor Guidelines.”
For Assisted Living residents, they can now leave the Plaza View building and walk outside throughout the campus. How wonderful it will be for these residents to get fresh air and see the sky again. We are awaiting new guidance that will allow for less restrictive visitation. We will let those residents and their families know about the new guidance as soon as we hear.
For our Health Care Center and Early memory Support residents, we have returned to restricted visitation, as today we learned that one of the direct care workers in the Health Care Center tested positive yesterday off campus. This staff member is quarantining at home.
I want to thank all of you, from the bottom of my heart, for your efforts in mitigating the spread of the virus, for following guidance and for your leadership. We've been through a lot of ups and downs, but your dedication to keeping the campus safe has been key. It takes all of us. Thank you.
My best,
Michelle Just,
President and CEO
Beatitudes Campus COVID-19 Dashboard
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