COVID-19 Transmission: Notification Letter to Residents and Family Members

We want to inform you that at Rockcastle Regional Hospital and Respiratory Care Center we have identified 1 new case of COVID-19 among our clinical staff and 1 new COVID-19 case among our non-clinical staff.   We currently have 17 Long Term Care staff members off work related to a positive screening test or an exposure from an outside source and the health department has told them to quarantine.  There are now 5 positive COVID-19 residents in our LTC facility and those residents have been placed in isolation.   We are still performing staff surveillance screenings twice a week and we retest residents as directed by CMS guidelines.   We will continue to follow the state and federal guidelines for employee testing and we will test all residents as directed by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). 

The safety of our residents and staff is our top priority. To our residents, if you are diagnosed with COVID-19, we will notify you directly and contact loved ones or a representative with whom you have given us permission to communicate. To reduce the spread and impact of COVID-19, we continue to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). We are staying in close communication with local and state health officials to ensure we are taking the appropriate steps under the current circumstances, including:

• Enhanced infection control precautions, such as wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) when we care for residents, increasing the availability of hand sanitizer, and more frequent cleaning and disinfecting of high-touch surfaces. Residents may also be moved in the facility to prevent the spread of the virus causing COVID-19.

• Screening residents and staff for COVID-19 symptoms, as well as anyone else who must enter our facility.
• Restricting in-room visitation except for situations such as end of life.
• Testing staff and residents for the virus causing COVID-19 based on current protocols.
• Providing and requiring facemasks for all staff to wear
• Requiring all others entering the facility to wear face coverings to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
• Postponing group activities and helping residents to practice social distancing.

• Quarantining all residents who leave the building for medical appointments or transfers to higher levels of care.
• Quarantining all resident admissions
• We encourage you to review the CDC website for information about COVID-19, including its symptoms, how it spreads, and actions you can take to protect your health: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html. All of us at Rockcastle Regional Hospital and Respiratory Care Center understand that this is a serious situation and might be frightening. Additional information about coping with stress can be found on the CDC website: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html.

We will continue to provide you with regular updates about the situation and will promptly notify you if we identify any residents or staff with confirmed COVID-19. We encourage you to contact us with questions and concerns. Please call us at 606-256-7775 email us at l.mckee@rhrcc.org.

The safety of our residents and staff is our top priority.

Sincerely,

Rockcastle Regional Hospital and Respiratory Care Center