Update on our COVID-19 response
05/21/2020
Bruyère is actively responding to COVID-19. We are working closely with Ottawa Public Health and our regional healthcare partners to keep our teams and the people we serve safe. The information below provides a brief update on our response across our three campuses in our hospital programs, long-term care and independent and assisted living for older adults.
Hospital programs
In our hospital programs we do not currently have any patients who have tested positive for COVID-19. We have continued in our prevention efforts such as…
- Visitor restrictions came into place in mid-March and remain in effect. Realizing how difficult these are for our patients, residents and their loved ones we are working hard to ensure social connection at a time where physical distance is Onsite screening at all of our campuses including the launch of an online tool to make it easier for our employees to screen-in each day.
- Requiring that all new admissions at Bruyère have a negative test result before being admitted.
- The creation of intake units (separated from all other units) at all Bruyère campuses. All new admissions will receive the care they need in these intake units for 14 days. Following this period, if patients are not displaying any COVID-19 symptoms, they will be transferred within Bruyère for the remainder of their stay. The 14 days is in line with the incubation period for the virus.
Long-Term Care
In late April outbreaks were declared at both our Bruyère’s long-term care homes, Élisabeth Bruyère and Saint-Louis Residences.
Our leadership and frontline are committed to taking all measures and evolving our response in our efforts to control, prevent further spread and eliminate the presence of this virus in our long-term care homes.
We have undergone institution-wide testing at both homes in partnership with Ottawa Public Health. These exercises have enabled us to identify asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 among our residents and staff. This has led to further cohorting (grouping) of residents with cases of COVID-19 to prevent further spread. We have also taken steps to enhance staffing at our homes through the redeployment of Bruyère employees from our hospital programs and with the support of our regional health care partners. We are grateful for the support of our regional partners in our response.
Despite all of the prevention measures already in place, the dedication of our teams and these additional efforts, we are still seeing the devastating effects of this virus on our residents. We have experienced the death of our residents and grieve their loss alongside their loved ones. As of writing we still have active cases of COVID-19 in our long-term care.
We will continue to test all residents who develop symptoms or who may have come into contact with someone with a confirmed case of COVID-19. We are working closely with Ottawa Public Health and advocating for continued and frequent testing across all of Bruyère’s programs and services.
The results of all testing is shared via Ottawa Public Health here. The report is currently updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Independent and assisted living for older adults
We recently learned that one of our tenants and one of our employees at Place Besserer, our independent and assisted living apartment building for older adults, have unfortunately tested positive for COVID-19. Thankfully both are doing well and remain without symptoms. As a result, Ottawa Public Health (OPH) has declared an outbreak at this site. Declaring an outbreak allows mobilization of resources and restriction of certain activities that could contribute to transmission in a setting such as this.
We will continue to work closely with OPH and testing for COVID-19 of those who may have come into close contact and all of our employees working at Place Besserer has commenced.
The results of all testing will be shared publicly via Ottawa Public Health here.