CHARLESTON — Stonerise, one of West Virginia’s leading providers of transitional and skilled nursing care, announced new guidelines Thursday for in-person patient visits at its centers. 

Skilled nursing centers can begin welcoming visitors under the guide of the infection control principles and visitation guidance contained in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) memo QSO 20-39. The CMS memo outlines greater visitation for patients while adhering to the nine core principles of COVID-19 infection prevention for safe visitation.

“This is a pivotal announcement for everyone in the Stonerise family, from patients and their families to our care teams,” said Larry Pack, Stonerise Chief Executive Officer. “We are approaching in-person visits with the same focus on safety and overall wellness as we have taken at every point during the pandemic so far. Everyone in West Virginia can support this progress by maintaining the safe behaviors necessary to keep county positivity rates below the 10 percent threshold to allow in-person visitation to continue.”

Effective immediately, this exciting progress follows the West Virginia Office of Health Facility Licensure & Certification’s (OHFLAC) recent confirmation that in-person visits are permitted at the state’s long-term care centers if they have had no active COVID-19 cases for at least the past 14 days and their county positivity rate is below 10 percent.

While Stonerise is actively preparing to welcome visitors back to its centers, the provider is also cautioning community members that visitation will initially follow these protocols for the protection of patients and employees:  

• Patients will be allowed up to two visitors at a time.
• Visits will be scheduled by appointment only and will take place in a designated location. 
• Visits will be limited to 30 minutes in order to allow as many patients as possible to receive visitors during the first week. Visit duration limitations will be eased over time.
• Visitors should enter through the main entrance where they will be screened before being escorted to the visitation location.
• All visitors must wear a mask or face covering, maintain 6 ft. social distancing and use proper hand hygiene while in the center.

Stonerise Guardian Angels have begun making personal phone calls to patients’ families to offer detailed instructions for scheduling a visitation, and hours of visitation.

For more information, please visit Stonerise.com or call your local Stonerise center.