Nursing Visitation Updated

Dear Residents, Families and Teammates,

We are happy to announce that Gov. Greg Abbot approved limited visits to Texas nursing homes. While September 24th has been chosen as the start date for the visits, we are still awaiting final guidelines from the state regarding how the visits will be conducted. The following is our initial understanding of the situation:   

Current visitation requirements:

  • Outdoor visits are preferred over indoor visits
  • Visitors are discouraged for those who are still in their 14-day quarantine from being discharged from the hospital (exceptions can be made for compassionate care visit)
  • Visits must be scheduled in advance (one visit at a time)
  • No more than two visitors at a time per resident
  • 30-45 min per visit
  • Visitors should be able to adhere to the core principles of COVID-19 Infection Prevention and staff will be required to provide monitoring for those who may have difficulty adhering to core principles, such as children
  • If positivity rate is greater than 10% for the county, visits may only occur in compassionate care situations

New requirements:

  • Expanded visitation allows designated essential family caregivers to provide support through visitation
  • Residents may designate up to two essential family caregivers
  • Essential caregivers must receive training on how to safely conduct a scheduled visit to help ensure their loved one’s physical, social and emotional needs are being met and proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other infection control measures
  • This training will be provided by Presbyterian Village North
  • Designated caregivers will not be required to maintain physical distancing, but only one caregiver may visit a resident at a time
  • Proper PPE must be used at all times during scheduled visits
  • Caregivers must test negative for COVID-19 within the previous 14 days before the initial visit
  • General visitors, who are not a designated essential caregiver, may have scheduled indoor visitation with the use of plexiglass safety barriers and no physical contact

We are eager to reunite our skilled nursing residents with their loved ones and are actively preparing for this new level of visitation. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we await further instruction from the state. Once received, we will communicate next steps so we can begin these expanded visitations.

Please contact us at pvninfo@forefrontliving.org or 214-355-9019 for additional information.

Sincerely,

Bryan Cooper

Executive Director