May 13, 2020     

Dear Friends and Families of Arbutus,

                In our attempt to be as transparent as possible with dealing with COVID-19, I wanted to send another update on how things are going at Arbutus Park Manor. We continue to follow the strict guidelines established by the Pa. Department of Health, the Centers of Disease Control and the state’s Governor. This means no visitation by outside individuals, deliveries only to the outside of a door, and triaging every employee on every shift for elevated temperatures or other symptoms of the virus. But, these are just a few of the precautions we are taking to keep your loved ones safe.

                As of May 13, 2020, we’ve had zero confirmed cases of COVID-19, and have zero individuals who are exhibiting new respiratory symptoms.

                Please know that residents are getting their hair tended to by our Beauty Shop workers at least once every two weeks. Only one resident at a time is permitted in the beauty shop. The residents, especially the ladies, really enjoy this attention!

                We know that a lot of you call in frequently to check on how our residents are doing, and that is fine. We hope you will understand that there may be unavoidable delays in call-back messaging due to our prime priority- your loved one’s immediate care.

                A good number of you have been scheduling Facetime calls with your loved ones through our Activity Department. Other than a few transmission glitches, this seems to be working well. Our residents are becoming quite the “techies” with this social media stuff.  I encourage you to continue to use this way of interacting with our residents.  It does wonders for their emotional well-being. And also, please follow Arbutus on our Facebook page to see the wonderful events we are doing for the residents.  Their smiles, and the smiles of our employees, are thankfully more contagious than the virus itself at Arbutus Park Manor!

                You may have seen the new announcement by the Governor that the state wants to start mandatory testing for COVID-19 on nursing home staff and residents.  We don’t know how this will affect Arbutus Park Manor being that we haven’t had a positive case.  We ‘ll keep you updated as we receive more information.

                                We will continue posting updates here on our website.  Please check it occasionally. We really want to keep you updated.

            Lastly, we can’t say enough about the kindness most of you have shown us during this difficult time!  The well-wishes, the cards, the encouraging notes and calls, and the donations and gifts you have sent our dedicated employees for their work has been remarkable. We can’t thank you enough. We do promise to continue to go Above and Beyond to keep your family members safe and secure.

God Bless You All,

Rick Wilson, Administrator