Dear residents, staff, families and supporters,

We have been very busy this week spreading love and cheer with Valentine’s Day and Random Acts of Kindness Week!

The state surveyors were in our building February 14-17. It is always challenging when they arrive, but they did report all of the residents and families they spoke to were happy and well cared for. They wanted to make sure to thank the staff for being cooperative and helpful, the residents for allowing them in their homes and letting them watch procedures and families for being open to talk to them. They did find our vaccine mandate program to be in full compliance. The full findings will not be available for several weeks.

The State of Iowa is still at a 15-19% positivity rate. Due to this, we continue to test staff twice a week and residents every 7 days. Staff testing Monday had 2 positive results. Staff testing Thursday showed no positive results. There was 1 positive resident in Evergreen Arbor this week. Evergreen Arbor was tested again today and there were no additional cases. The one case remaining in Woodland Terrace will come out of quarantine tomorrow. The residents who had been quarantined in Aspen Cottage and Linden Place are now out of quarantine. Eichhorn Haus has no positive cases at this time. Eisenach Village has a family reporting a new diagnosis of Covid after being in the hospital.

The Bartels team has been working hard to recover from the large number of staff who were off sick in January. As the state positivity rate is now in a steep decline, we are all looking forward to a positivity rate below 5% and warmer weather.

The employee engagement survey was sent out at the end of January. The return rate is around 60%. Due to the number of staff who were out ill, I am extending the response time until February 25. I would like to get a 75% return rate and then we will celebrate with walking tacos for all!

I appreciate all who helped this week go smoothly!

Sincerely,

Paula Geise, RN, MSN, CEO

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