Powell Valley Care Center and The Heartland now have visitation rooms to facilitate better scheduled visits. 

The residents of The Heartland had a naming contest for their visitation room. Nona Peyton’s entry of Our Cozy Corner was chosen as the winner. 

“We’re all excited about it — staff, residents, and families,” said Karen Zaninovich Parker, director of The Heartland. 

Regulations and safety protocol require staff to be available for screening and coordination of visits, so visitors still need to call and schedule time with residents. But Our Cozy Corner allows the residents to have indoor, face-to-face visits with their loved ones. 

The care center has also completed its visitation room, but they’re still waiting on the furniture to arrive before visits can be scheduled. Ryan Brinkerhoff, care center administrator, said it shouldn’t be long before the room can be used. 

In order to keep the elderly residents of the two facilities safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented restrictions were instituted on visitors starting last March. Across the country residents of long-term care facilities, including five at a facility in Lovell, died from the disease, which is much more likely to be fatal in people over 70. 

The Heartland, which is an assisted living facility, and Powell Valley Care Center, which is a long-term care facility, took precautions early on to protect their residents. 

Throughout much of the pandemic, there were no cases of COVID-19 at either facility. In the past couple months, there was one case at The Heartland and two at the care center. The residents are tested regularly, and after the residents’ tests came back positive, the facilities’ staff took steps to protect everyone. 

“We immediately took action and safeguarded the other residents and staff,” Parker said of The Heartland. 

The two residents at the care center who tested positive were moved into the facility’s COVID unit, where they were safely quarantined. None of the three residents at either facility needed to be hospitalized. 

“Staff did a phenomenal job at taking care of the residents,” Brinkerhoff said. 

So far, no more positive cases have been identified among residents, and Brinkerhoff said, “We’re keeping everyone safe and healthy.” 

With COVID vaccines rolling out, it’s likely visitations will become easier and closer in the next year. 

At The Heartland, 73% of residents had consented to the first shot of vaccine by the end of January, and 84% of residents had at the care center. Parker said the rates of consent at Powell Valley Healthcare’s facilities are what the organization is seeing on average for the population it serves. 

Residents will begin receiving the second dose this week, with the vaccine distributed through Walgreens.

Our Cozy Corner cost $232,275 to construct, and state CARES Act funding covered $176,250 of that. The care center’s visitation area construction was $91,914, and CARES Act funding covered the entire cost of the construction.