Dear Family Member:

I am pleased to announce that on July 7, 2020 Wauconda Care will be reinstituting limited group dining as allowed by the Illinois Department of Public Health’s guidance.

Our policy reads as follows: In accordance with the Illinois Department of Public Health’s (IDPH) Guidance for Communal Dining this facility will restore communal dining for those residents who require assistance feeding themselves, those who require supervision, or those who would benefit based on the facility’s assessment.

Wauconda Care will meet IDPH guidelines in the following manner:

Residents identified as positive for COVID-19 or who are displaying symptoms of COVID-19-like illness (fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath) will be served meals in their rooms.

Residents who are on quarantine as determined by the facility will be served meals in their rooms.

If residents are not displaying ANY symptoms of COVID-19, the facility will implement the following measures to balance the directive to eliminate communal dining and the need to provide nutritional meals to residents in a safe manner.

Dining periods will be staggered, so fewer residents dine at any given time.

The facility will utilize the Town Square area in addition to the dining room in order to allow for social distancing during the dining process.

In order to decrease the number of residents in the dining areas, residents who can feed themselves without any issues or concerns will dine in their room.

Those residents needing assistance to eat will be separated by at least six feet. Depending on the size of the dining table, only 1 to 2 residents will be seated at each table. Tables will be placed at least six feet apart.

The facility may consider utilizing resident attendants and speech therapists to assist nursing assistants in feeding residents.

Staff will wear a facemask when feeding residents.

Hand hygiene will be performed between resident care (feeding).

Each employee will only transport ONE resident at a time to/from the dining area. An employee should NEVER attempt to push more than one wheelchair at a time.

The facility will ensure cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces between dining periods using only EPA-registered disinfectants.

We hope this is the first of many steps in restoring some sense of normalcy back into the lives of our residents. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Hahn
Administrator