Dear Family and Friends of South Cove Manor:

It has been a few weeks since my last letter to all of you. I am writing today with a quick COVID update, as well as some news on the ongoing resident transportation issue that is affecting every nursing home in Massachusetts.

Our ongoing efforts to educate residents, and staff members about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines continues, and has been very well received. Over 99% of the resident population at South Cove Manor is fully vaccinated, and over 97% of our staff population are also fully vaccinated. Our staff members have clearly taken the issue of vaccination seriously, as our vaccination rate is 25% higher than that of the average vaccination rate for all nursing home staff. These rates have helped us to remain COVID free since April 24th, and we are hopeful that this trend continues.

On another note, many of you have experienced issues with transportation of your loved ones to offsite appointments at doctor’s offices, and hospitals. These issues have included delays of several hours, as well as outright cancelations. These issues are not exclusive to South Cove, but rather are occurring statewide, and are the result of a lack of EMS staff willing to work due to the pandemic. At South Cove, we are doing everything we possibly can to minimize the impact this issue has on our residents. We have changed transportation providers in an effort to improve the issue for our residents, and are considering a plan to utilize our South Cover Manor van for medical transportation for those residents that are able to travel in a wheelchair. In addition, I am part of a state wide committee that includes other long term care leaders, representatives from the Department of Public Health, and representatives from Mass Health that are working to come up with permanent solutions to this wide spread, and complicated issue.

Please know that our entire clinical team is involved with trying to find the best possible scenario for each residents’ specific transportation needs on a case-by-case basis. This issue is as frustrating to us as it is to you and our residents. 

Please do not hesitate to reach out to Li Chen or I with any questions that you may have about this issue, or any other issue at any time.

Thank you again for placing your trust in South Cove Manor.

親愛的中華頤養院家人和朋友：

距離我上一封給你們所有人的信已經過去了幾個星期。我今天寫一篇關於 新冠 的快速更新，以及一些關於正在影響馬薩諸塞州每個療養院的院民交通問題的新聞。

我們繼續努力對院民和工作人員進行 新冠疫苗的安全性和有效性教育，並得到了很好的反響。 中華頤養院超過 99% 的院民都接種了疫苗，我們超過 97% 的員工也接種了疫苗。我們的工作人員顯然非常重視疫苗接種的問題，因為我們的疫苗接種率比所有療養院員工的平均疫苗接種率高出 25%。自 4 月 24 日以來，這高疫苗接種率幫助我們保持了零新冠案例，我們希望這種趨勢繼續下去。

另一方面，你們中的許多人都遇到過親人前往醫生和醫院預約的交通問題。這些問題包括幾個小時的延誤，以及徹底取消。這些問題並非 中華頤養院獨有，而是在全州範圍內發生，並且是由於大流行而缺乏願意工作的 EMS 人員的結果。在 中華頤養院，我們正在盡一切努力將這個問題對我們院民的影響降到最低。我們已經更換了運輸供應商，以改善我們院民的問題，並正在考慮一項計劃，利用我們的 中華頤養院 麵包車為那些能夠坐在輪椅上的院民提供醫療運輸服務。此外，我是一個全州委員會的成員，該委員會包括其他長期護理領導、公共衛生部的代表和大眾衛生部門的代表，他們正在努力為這一廣泛而復雜的問題提出永久解決方案。

請注意，我們的整個團隊都在努力根據每個院民的特定交通需求尋找最佳方案。這個問題對我們和您和我們的院民一樣令人沮喪。

如果您對此問題或任何其他問題有任何疑問，請隨時與陳力或我聯繫。

再次感謝您對中華頤養院的信任。

 www.southcovemanor.org