The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Of?ce of Health and Human Services

 

gag-.74 . 4' Soldiers? Home in H01 oke
3:45; 110 Cherry Street
Holyoke, MA 01040-2829
TEL: (413) 532-9475 FAX: (413) 538-7968
9? gov/hly/
CHARLES D. BAKER MARYLOU SUDDERS
Governor Secretary, EOHHS
KARYN E. POLITO CHERYL L. POPPE
Lieutenant Governor Acting Secretary, DVS

VALENDA LIPTAK
Administrator

July 30, 2020
Dear Veterans and Families,

I hope this finds you and your family well. These unprecedented times have shown the strength of our
community and those who care for our veterans here at the Soldiers' Home, and we are pleased to
continue keeping you updated with the happenings of the Home.

The dedicated staff at the Home are continuing to care for your veterans as they recover from COVID-
19, and we appreciate your support for your loved ones and the Home.

Situational Update

As we reported earlier this week, on Monday, a veteran resident of the Soldiers? Home in Holyoke who
was clinically recovered from (following CDC guidance) again experienced COVID-related
and was proactively transferred to a hospital for treatment and tested positive. An additional
test was returned negative.

Immediate action was taken including isolating roommates and units, increasing deep cleaning, and
increasing PPE usage across the Home.

The results for the full-house resident testing are coming in, and as of right now, the only resident that
tested positive is the veteran resident reported above who was clinically recovered, tested positive, and
subsequently tested negative.

The full-house staff testing resulted in 6 staff testing positive, all of whom had clinically recovered after
previously being and/or testing positive months agoabundance of caution have been sent home.

Clinical Recovery

We have recently received a few questions from families around "clinical recovery? and what that
means for your loved one. Over 80 residents had been determined clinically recovered, which means
that they at one point tested positive for COVID-19, but are now considered clinically recovered as
defined by federal CDC guidance.

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July 30, 2020

Our medical team is making all clinical decisions following the latest CDC guidance, which continues to
evolve as the medical community learns more about this new virus. The CDC recommends making
medical decisions regarding when to end isolation and determine that the patient has recovered based
on 

The guidance regarding recovery from COVID-19:
- For peonle who are isolation and precautions can be ended generally 10
days after onset for most people, and up to 20 days for some.
0 For people who are not isolation and precautions can end 10 days after their first
positive test was ta ken.

The medical team continues to carefully follow the public health guidance around recovery. At the
Home, all of the residents who are considered clinically recovered were not showing for at
least 20 days before being determined clinically recovered. All clinically recovered individuals reside in a
designated unit.

At this time, medical research does not know how long the virus may remain in a person's body, but it is
widely agreed that once a person is determined clinically recovered they are not believed to be
contagious.

if you are interested in learning more, you can read more about CDC guidelines on isolation, treatment,
and recovery here.

Visitation Update

As mentioned previously, we are conducting full house testing for all residents and staff.
Unfortunately, until we have the results, we temporarily will be suspending family visitation for the
next two weeks out of an abundance of caution for your veterans. At this time, we expect visitation
to resume on Tuesday, August 11, but will resume sooner if test results allow.

We understand the importance of communication and connection to your loved one during these times,
which is why we hope you will schedule a time to Facetime or Zoom with our recreation staff. To
schedule a time please contact the Family Line at (413) 552-4764 during the operational hours of
Monday-Friday from 8:00 am. to 4:00 pm. You can call the Home?s main line for assistance after hours
at (413) 532?9475.

Our leadership team continues to take every precaution to keep our residents and staff safe, including
following the guidelines set out by the Department of Public Health (DPH), Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

 

Valenda Liptak, R.N., MM
Administrator