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SALT LAKE CITY — When the pandemic hit Utah in March, senior living communities were faced with two sets of problems, according to Jesse Buntjer, executive director of Cedarwood at Sandy.
First was the virus itself. "Obviously protecting residents from the virus is top priority," Buntjer said.
The second was combatting the loneliness that can come with canceled visits and activities.
"The biggest challenge has been that lack of human connection," said Wade Vest, executive director of Sagewood at Daybreak. "There's nothing like giving someone a hug and having that connection through physical touch, so I think that's been very hard on our residents."
By mimicking the NBA bubble and adding a few innovative testing solutions, the two facilities, both operated by Kisco Senior Living, have been able to ease restrictions and stay proactive in finding positive cases at their facilities through frequent testing and limited outings.
"We had to try to protect the residents and put a bubble around the community," Buntjer said. Both Cedarwood and Sagewood have also adopted a more efficient testing method — pooled tests that yield quicker results and help manage potential cases.
Here's how it works: Each community has been divided into multiple groups of about 50-100 people who will submit a saliva sample once or twice a week to be tested.
All of the samples from each group are then pooled together and tested at once by SiREM Labs to save time and cut costs. If the test comes back negative, it's assumed every test in that pool was negative. But if the sample comes back positive, each person in that pool is PCR tested individually to determine who is positive.
"If someone in that pool tests positive, rather than having to shut down the whole community, we can do a PCR test just on that pool, identify which resident has COVID, and then the rest of them aren't all in quarantine," said Buntjer. "So it's really allowed us to get ahead of it, and catch things early."
Results from the initial pool test are typically available the next day, according to Buntjer, and the technique can also help catch and stop asymptomatic spread proactively, he added.
"There's not many communities out there that are testing, unless they're required to test based on a positive case in the community," Vest said. "And what I love about our approach is we're proactively testing twice a week, whether we have positive cases or not."
Pool testing has been supported by several health experts, including Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus task force official, who told the American Society for Microbiology it can be helpful in increasing COVID-19 surveillance and improve contact tracing.
Pool testing works best in communities where prevalence of the disease is low, according to experts, which it has been at both Utah senior homes.
Cedarwood didn't see a COVID-19 case until October — something Buntjer credits the facility's policies and residents' willingness to follow health guidelines for.
"I think a lot of the reason is our residents and staff have been phenomenal. We didn't have any residents that fought against wearing masks; they understood the value of that," he said. "Our staff has been fantastic about wearing their masks and making sure that if they didn't feel good they didn't come into work."
The new method has been implemented for just a few weeks at each facility and so far at Sagewood, five negative pools have come back with one positive pool. The negative pool testing has allowed the facilities to ease some restrictions, with socially distanced dine-in opened back up and some activities offered again.
With warmer weather over the summer, social distanced and masked visits were allowed outdoors at both places. Now, families can visit through a plexiglass barrier.
For the last few weeks, the facilities have been trying a new approach as well where residents can have a masked visit with family in a common area within 24-hours of the family member getting a negative PCR test.
"It's really opened up an opportunity for our residents to be able to see their loved ones," Buntjer said.
Thanks to the new testing and visitation protocols implemented, Buntjer said they've seen families feeling more confident in deciding to move into a senior living community.
"So not only has it really impacted our current residence, but I think it's given a lot of confidence for people that need more care or more help that have kind of resisted moving in," he said. "Well, now they can move in and still, to a degree, be able to visit with their loved ones."
Ultimately, both facilities want their residents to stay safe while also staying connected.
"I think that's what really drives happiness and brings joy to people's lives is being able to spend time with those that they love," Vest said.
