Long Term Care Family & Friends Information

Call 201-967-6858, for prerecorded updates on visitation and other important messages.

Katie Richardson, Chief Long Care Officer and Administrator, provides regular updates for our residents, their families and loved ones regarding safety, care, and other important information during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read COVID-19 Update Messages

Expanded protocols and policies intended to keep our residents and staff members safe, as we collectively act to help limit the spread of COVID-19.

Outdoor, indoor, and window visitation is available by appointment only. Visitors must maintain social distancing, no sharing of food/beverages, mandatory face coverings, and a limit of two visitors per resident at one time. Informed consent is required for outdoor visitation. Informed consent is required for outdoor and indoor visitation and will address all requirements and safety protocols in place. Read the updated Visitor Policy.

Call our Social Services Department at 201.967.4170 to schedule a visit with your loved one.

Remote Visits Available

During this time, we will facilitate remote visitation with our residents through Skype and FaceTime, upon request. We will also send photos and videos of your loved ones so you can remain connected.

Please call our Social Services Department at 201.967.4170 to schedule a remote visit with your loved one.

Group Activities

We have temporarily suspended all large group activity programs, postponed community outings, and ceased voluntary out-on-pass trips. Our in-house activity programs continue and we are making appropriate modifications to ensure our residents’ physical, psychosocial, cognitive, and leisure needs are being met. Our religious and spiritual services will be offered individually.

At this time, residents have been advised to remain on the unit where they reside and to notify a staff member of any off-unit requests, so we can work to ensure their needs are being met.

Resident Care

Our staff is in communication with outside physicians’ offices to determine the need for offsite health appointments, on a case-by-case basis; and we will work to reschedule postponed non-essential appointments, as needed. We continue to provide ongoing education to our residents about social distancing, proper hand and respiratory hygiene, and the need to report any symptoms to a nurse if they are not feeling well.

Our residents’ and employees’ health and safety remain paramount to the high quality of care we continue to provide here at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. We will continue to work in partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other local, state (NJDOH), and federal agencies to help to do our part to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 to all those in our care.

We thank you for your patience and understanding during this unprecedented time. We will continue to provide significant updates, as they are known. We will share significant updates on our website and social media platforms, and in other communications.

Long Term Care COVID-19 Pandemic Response Plan

Policy

Bergen New Bridge Medical Center will establish all necessary measures to prevent the transmission and/or spread of communicable and infectious diseases, including COVID-19, and implement infection prevention and control interventions. SARS-CoV-2, a strain of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, is a contagious, at times fatal, respiratory disease that has resulted in a widespread pandemic outbreak.

Plan

• Prevention measures of COVID-19 include:
  • Training and education of all staff related to the mode of transmission of the virus, standard and transmission-based precautions which are designed to interrupt infectious disease transmission and to prevent the spread of any communicable disease
  • Training and education of residents and responsible parties on the symptoms of COVID-19 and infection control standards

• Any confirmed or suspect case of COVID-19 will be reported to Infection Prevention who will facilitate reporting to the Bergen County Board of Health
• Any confirmed or suspect case of COVID-19 will be appropriately isolated in a single-resident room or in an appropriate cohort area and proper infection prevention measures put into place
• The Infection Control Practitioners will conduct surveillance activities daily, including monitoring any reports signs/symptoms of respiratory illness
• Utilization of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) will be utilized when providing care to any resident with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19
• Utilization of proper sanitizing and cleaning supplies
• All staff will utilize a face mask while in the medical center
• All staff, vendors, and visitors will be screened daily for temperature and respiratory symptoms
• Timely notification to residents and resident representatives in the event there is a confirmed case or cluster of respiratory symptoms as outlined by federal and state guidance
• An established pre-recorded phone line will provide updates, as needed, for resident representatives
• Updates to resident/resident representative, as needed, and also posted on the facility website
• The telephone number for an LTC staff member 24 hours per day
• Visitation may occur but alternative means of communication are also offered to ensure regular contact and communication with friends/families/representatives, e.g. FaceTime, window visits, outdoor visitation (as appropriate). Visitation will be determined by criteria set forth by the NJ Department of Health Executive Directive and/or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
• Email listserv developed and use of postal service for those who do not have email for communications
• Follow all Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines recommended for nursing homes and COVID-19
• Follow all Federal and State LTC Guidelines recommended for nursing homes and COVID- 19.

Lessons Learned From COVID-19

• Continued and ongoing communication is critical to the daily operations of any facility.  It was important for us to ensure that our entire medical center was kept up to date on COVID-19, information specific to the virus within our medical center, and our mitigation and prevention plans for the virus.  Additional rounding was implemented throughout the facility to share information and also provide additional support.  A COVID-19 email was set up for staff questions and a response was provided by a member of the senior team.

• Ongoing communication with our residents and family members made a tremendous difference during such a difficult time. Very early on in the COVID-19 outbreak within our county, BNBMC made the decision to suspend visitation.  We knew regular and ongoing communication was going to be a necessity to keep residents and representatives so we immediately purchased additional ipads and cell phones dedicated for “Family/Resident” communication only.  All staff were hands on in facilitating virtual/telephonic communication.  It was very gratifying to hear how appreciative everyone was to have regular communication. 

• Maintaining an appropriate stockpile of Person Protective Equipment (PPE) and Cleaning products for potential need to continue to maintain safety for all our residents/patients and employees. 

• Showing staff support and “TLC” was important for us so we worked with various community restaurants/food chains for donated food and also partnered with “Ramsey Strong”, a group of volunteers who worked to support restaurants and health care facilities during the height of the pandemic, to have meals provided for our staff on all shifts.  

• Having an emergency staffing plan is extremely important and we continue to be prepared with a plan should a situation where staffing is needed arises. 

• Our residents were asked to remain in their rooms throughout the pandemic.  They were not able to dine with or participate in group activities with their peers so it was imperative that, as staff, we continue to keep each of them engaged, upbeat and participate in individualized activities.  Our Therapeutic Recreation Dept modifying all programming, while not compromising the type and frequency, to accommodate individualized programming.  They figure out a way to have “hallway” programs which allowed residents to sit in their doorways and still participate.  Ensuring residents remained engaged helped prevent loneliness and boredom.