Healthy Living Blog,
News & Events

Washington State recently released updates to the Safe Start Plan for Long Term Care. In our continuing commitment to keep our residents and families informed about how these changes will impact our communities, we would like to share how we will be adapting the new guidelines for our industry.

GenCare follows the guidance issued by the Department of Social and Health Services, Residential Care Services, Local Health Department Jurisdictions, and the Governor’s Safe Start Plan. The protocols are often different from those issued for the public and the community at large.

Below is a summary of the current guidelines:

• GenCare may be able to accommodate vaccinated residents who wish to dine together or participate in certain vitality events, without masks or social distancing, based on community specific building layout. The Executive Director at your community will send details to residents and families in the coming days.
  
• GenCare is altering restrictions on group sizes and is looking forward to having more residents joining some of their favorite activities like ‘Happy Hour’ & enjoying entertainers once again.
  
• We continue to screen all guests and staff as they enter our communities.
  
• Residents continue to be assessed when returning to the community and all residents continue to receive daily temperature screening.
  
• Mask wearing and social distancing will be practiced by all when in common areas.
  
• All employees will continue to wear masks and other appropriate PPE as required.
  
• Cleaning and sanitizing surfaces will continue to be a point of emphasis throughout our communities.
  
• Following state guidelines, we encourage outdoor visitation from families when possible or in the privacy of the resident’s apartment. Unfortunately, we remain unable to accommodate guests in our dining rooms currently.
  
• We would like to remind visitors about our on-site weekly rapid testing capability and encourage visitors to make advance appointments.
  
• We want to clarify that the recent CDC changes to guidelines around wearing facemasks (for vaccinated people) does not apply to long term care facilities, including assisted living. Therefore, GenCare will continue to require that all staff and visitors be required to wear facemasks.