We have no new positive cases in the community at large.
The most recent positivity rate in Delaware County is 6.1%. Pennsylvania is now at 7.5%. With the upcoming start of school in the next 2 weeks, we expect this rate to continue to climb. In response to this continued climb in positivity, we will be adjusting our visitation protocols for our Meadows and Pines units. These families should expect an update soon. I would ask those who have scheduled visits this weekend to be cognizant of this growing positivity rate and the fact that even a mild case of Covid could be devastating to some of our frail residents and perhaps adjust your visits to the outside rather than in resident rooms. At this time in the state of Pennsylvania, there are active cases in approximately half of the skilled nursing units in Pennsylvania. Our Meadows unit is a skilled nursing unit. We would like to continue to be on the good side of that statistic and we ask your help with keeping our units free of positive cases. Remember that even those who are fully vaccinated can transmit the virus. I would suggest caution with those visiting family members who may have kids or grandkids who have not been vaccinated and keep the visits outside, distanced, and masked.
As of today, any staff that has not started their vaccine course yet has been notified of the fact that they will not be on the schedule past Sept 1st. We have accepted the resignations of those who have decided not to get the vaccine. This was a very low number out of our over 270 staff members and did not include any key employees. We thank them for their service to our community and wish them luck in their future endeavors. The loss of staff will not affect any of our health care operations, but we do have a current issue with our dining services staffing, most pronounced with our servers. Keep in mind that some of our servers need parental approval for the vaccine. This may affect our dining program for a short period of time while we continue to search for staff that is both vaccinated and available to work. Our hope is that some minds get changed in the future.
On the positive side, Wesley Enhanced Living has been ranked 4th in the nation by Fortune magazine as ‘Best Workplaces for Aging Services.’ This ranking is attained by completing a survey of our staff and our scoring being ranked against all other employers who underwent the survey. We are the only aging services employer in the state of Pennsylvania to be ranked. We thank all of our staff and know that we are only as good as the people that work here at WEL Main Line.
We continue to schedule vaccine clinics onsite and are preparing for both our flu vaccine and the booster Covid shot. Keep those sleeves rolled up!