March 25, 2021

Dear Family,

As we’ve previously communicated, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued recent updates to its guidance for visitation in long-term care facilities. Last week, the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) also issued updated visitation guidance, which includes more stringent measures and criteria that we must meet for accommodating visitation, particularly indoor visitation.

Here are links to each agency’s guidelines:

CMS
Georgia DPH

One of the most significant differences between these guidelines is that DPH requires that long-term care facilities suspend indoor visitation for 14 days if a facility has experienced an outbreak, which is defined as one or more new staff or resident cases. In other words, if a resident or staff member in our building tests positive for COVID-19, we cannot accommodate indoor visitation for 14 days.

We will continue maximizing as many opportunities as possible to safely accommodate visitation appointments. If indoor visitation isn’t possible, we will do everything in our power to accommodate appointments outside.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue meeting the requirements of federal and state guidelines.

Click here to schedule a visit.

We recently moved to a new calendar system for scheduling visitation. We have experienced some technical issues with this system but we believe that they have been resolved. However, if you receive a visit confirmation that indicates a different date or time than what you selected, it is a mistake and we ask that you please let us know as soon as possible about the discrepancy. We apologize for any inconvenience. 

Please review our visitation guidelines by clicking here.

Melanie Haders
Administrator

Follow updates online at www.agrhodes.org/coronavirus. Email us at FamilyCobb@agrhodes.org if you have questions.