RiverWoods CEO: Widespread testing of staff, long-term care residents is key
By Jason Schreiber Union Leader Correspondent
Originally Published by the NH Union Leader on April 26, 2020
As the death toll grew at a Washington state nursing home, where dozens of staff and residents had fallen ill with COVID-19, Justine Vogel followed the horrific news in disbelief.
Life Care Center of Kirkland, Wash., was one of the first long-term care facilities in the country to face a coronavirus outbreak, which reportedly resulted in 37 deaths.
It was a tragedy Vogel and others committed to protecting the most vulnerable population did not want to see repeated.
“Our process went from disbelief to how do we keep that from happening here, to how do we contain it when it comes, because you know it’s coming for you?” said Vogel, chief executive officer of the RiverWoods Group.
“That’s what we’ve been saying to our residents for a while. Math would suggest that we will have some cases, and you just have to be prepared, and I feel like we are. We are doing everything we can. It’s scary to our staff, it’s scary to our residents, but we’re in it together,”