The following is from Ann Bowdan Wilder, Media and Communications Manager for Spring City Care and Rehabilitation Center:

“Over the past several months, Spring City Care & Rehabilitation Center has been proactive and aggressive in its fight against the Coronavirus and its related illness, COVID-19. This proactive approach mandates that Spring City Care & Rehabilitation Center be ready for, not if, but when COVID-19 might affect the facility; and being prepared to protect and inform our residents, their families, and community with the utmost care and transparency.

As of 5 p.m. yesterday (October 20, 2020), the current positive cases for Signature HealthCARE’s Spring City Care & Rehabilitation Center are: positive residents: 6 (5 in-house, 1 in a partnering hospital) and positive staff: 1

As we know, this virus changes daily and there are many asymptomatic persons, even in the state of Tennessee at large, who remain untested, virus carriers, that can affect us all. Furthermore, many of our residents must go out to hospitals for appointments or stays that last several days, and then return back into our facility. In doing so, ambulance personnel and other third party hospital workers are involved and interact with the transport of our residents; all of whom encounter persons in the general public every day. We indeed realize, the potential for this virus to affect us all is high.

That being said, Spring City Care & Rehabilitation Center is prepared to appropriately care for our residents who test positive by using a variety of methods depending on outcomes, including the facility’s COVID-19 unit on site. Signature HealthCARE has created nearly 4-dozen COVID-19 units in its facilities nationwide with the acknowledgement of the CDC and local health departments. Like our other units, Spring City Care & Rehab Center’s COVID unit is isolated with barrier systems in place, separating itself from the rest of the facility, with separate supplies, food, its own entrance, and dedicated staff who work on the COVID units only. Personal protective equipment (PPE) will be provided and worn per CDC guidelines. Signature HealthCARE has consulted with its Infectious Disease physician and Infectious Disease nurse on board, who have provided guidance on the development of our COVID-19 units and who have monitored the implementation and operations at Spring City Care & Rehab. If at any time a physician determines a resident needs a higher level of care, they will be treated at one of our partnering hospitals.

Spring City Care & Rehabilitation Center wants to assure our residents, families, staff and community that we continue to take every precaution possible and follow the strict guidelines of the CDC and other controlling government agencies which include: a proactive facility-wide testing protocol, screening all stakeholders and residents daily for symptoms of the virus, testing at least weekly until there are no positive cases for 14 days, then testing according to CMS guidelines, utilizing the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) including gloves and masks, currently restricting facility visitation in accordance with federal and state guidelines, and using alternate methods of communication for families, including Telehealth, iPads, iPhones, FaceTime, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, as well as window visits and car parades and the mailing of cards and letters.

In this COVID-19 climate, we must continue to mandate, per government instruction, that our families continue in this restricted protocol. It is of the utmost importance for the protection of everyone involved, especially our residents. We know that remaining physically distant from loved ones has been difficult for all. There’s nothing like personal interaction. But we are thankful and appreciate that most of our families have understood our restrictions on visitation, and in fact, welcome them and have asked us to keep those protections in place.

Spring City Care & Rehabilitation Center greatly appreciates the cooperation and understanding of our families and we continue to work with the local and state health departments, as well as other county and city officials, and we thank them.”