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At Georgia Senior Home, Staff Stays Put 24-7 to Stop Virus Spread

Associated Press

   ATLANTA, GEORGIA - As girls, Nadia Williams and her sister spent
   countless hours imagining their weddings. Now 30, Williams helped her
   younger sibling plan her big day, but when it came on Friday, she
   couldn't be at her side as maid of honor. Instead, she put on a
   sequined dress, pulled her hair back, held a bouquet, and watched the
   ceremony alone, via Zoom, from a community for older adults.

   Williams is among about 70 employees who are sheltering in place
   alongside more than 500 residents at an upscale assisted-living
   facility just outside Atlanta. Since the end of March, Park Springs has
   had employees live on its 61-acre campus instead of commute from home
   to protect residents from the coronavirus -- an unusual approach, even
   as nursing homes have been among the hardest-hit places by the
   pandemic.

   "Most facilities are so short on space," said Betsy McCaughey, of the
   Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, a nonprofit that provides
   guidelines for preventing coronavirus at nursing homes. She lauded the
   idea of keeping staff on site, noting it also protects workers'
   families and communities.

   The approach has been used elsewhere: In France, staff at a nursing
   home ended a 47-day quarantine Monday. In Connecticut, the owner of an
   assisted-living facility that is housing staff on the premises, Tyson
   Belanger, has called for government funding to help more senior
   communities do so.

   In Georgia, Williams, a health care administrator, said her duty to the
   residents came first, even though it meant missing the wedding.

   "I wish I was there, definitely," she said, choking up in a video
   interview with The Associated Press. "I wish I was able to help her get
   ready."

   Park Springs' lockdown started after four employees and a resident
   tested positive for the virus. Most nursing homes have limited
   visitors, and many screen people for fevers or ask whether they've had
   contact with anyone with the virus. Park Springs' administrators said
   they feared those strategies might not be enough.

   "We knew we had to do something drastic," said Donna Moore, chief
   operating officer of the company that owns Park Springs.

   In some ways, Park Springs is more like a resort than a traditional
   elder-care facility. Residents -- some needing no medical care -- are
   spread out in apartment buildings, homes and duplexes on the gated
   campus near the base of Stone Mountain, a giant rock formation that
   lures tourists with a trail to the summit and an enormous carving of
   Confederate leaders.

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