September 4, 2020
Our residents are at higher risk of serious illness from exposure to COVID-19 and respiratory illnesses. You can help us protect everyone living, working or visiting at our Manors by preventing any potential spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses.
This special bulletin is designed to assure residents, families and visitors to our Manors that The Brenda Strafford Foundation (BSF) is taking all reasonable precautions to prevent the occurrence or spread of COVID-19 in our sites.
As seniors living in continuing care communities are a population that is at higher risk, and out of an abundance of precaution, BSF is taking extra Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures within our sites that are considered over and above the current guidelines for the general public in Alberta at this time.
The Brenda Strafford Foundation is currently planning for a potential ‘COVID-19 Wave 2,’ in conjunction with influenza season and ‘Back to School’ implications. In accordance with Orders by Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH), The Brenda Strafford Foundation continues to evaluate our organizational risk tolerance for COVID-19 on an ongoing basis. We also continue to monitor and evaluate The Foundation’s Safe Visiting Policy and Procedures as part of our ongoing risk tolerance assessment.
We would like to take this opportunity to inform our residents and families of some of the actions The Foundation may implement in order to safeguard our residents, staff, family/support person(s) and visitors if the risk for COVID-19 exposure is assessed to be high.
As defined by the CMOH Order, ‘risk tolerance’ is the ability of a site to accept increased potential of exposure to COVID-19 and to inform situations where restricted access may be necessary. Risk tolerance is fluid (i.e. is not constant and will continuously change) and will depend on many factors.
An operator may temporarily restrict access in situations where a risk tolerance assessment indicates increased risk of exposure to COVID-19, such as: an increase in local community COVID-19 cases; confirmed site outbreak; or other situations that may limit the ability of an operator to safely have more people on site.
Examples of restricted access include: only allowing designated family/support persons (i.e. no outdoor visits); adjusting designated family/support persons standing visitation schedules; reducing the number of persons permitted to limit the number of additional people on site at any one time.
Identified organizational risk factors:There has been a steady increase in active cases of COVID-19 in the Calgary zone, and once again Calgary now exceeds Edmonton as the ‘hot spot’ with the most active cases of COVID-19 in Alberta.
As of September 2, there are 639 active cases in the Calgary zone. The active case numbers in Calgary have more than doubled in the past two weeks, with an increase from 295 active cases on August 18, and an increase from 362 active cases on August 27. This is a concerning trend that we continue to monitor in our ongoing risk assessment factors.
As part of our planning in preparation for the second wave, The Foundation has identified the following ‘triggers’ and ‘responses’ as part of our ongoing risk tolerance assessment processes.
Triggers |
Responses |
|---|---|
|
School on outbreak |
|
|
General community prevalence:
|
|
| BSF site on outbreak |
|
Any restrictions on access to the site would be communicated to residents, families and visitors. Restrictions would be monitored on an ongoing basis, and would not exceed 14 days without re-evaluation, in accordance with the CMOH Order and The Foundation’s commitment to ongoing risk assessment.
Please speak to the management at your site if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your ongoing understanding and cooperation.
Together, we remain BSF Strong!
