Tulsa nursing homes are welcoming visitors again, but not like before COVID-19

Her daughter, Julie Wilson, didn’t mind at all.

“I don’t know how much she understood,” Wilson said after the 45-minute visit. “But I can’t tell you how much it meant to me and my dad to see her in person.”

Nursing home visits resumed statewide Monday under guidelines approved last week by the governor. Most facilities in Oklahoma jumped immediately to Phase 3 of a three-phase reopening process, but Tulsa, with the number of COVID cases trending up again in recent days, remained under tighter restrictions.

Facilities don’t have to allow visits at all during Phase 1 but may do so “under limited and controlled conditions” that still keep visitors and residents well apart from each other.

Wilson wore a mask and spoke to her mother through a screened window at midtown Tulsa’s Oklahoma Methodist Manor, where staff members spent 15 minutes wiping down the area before the next visitors came in. Hugs and kisses will have to wait for yet another day, but most visitors shed at least a few happy tears Monday.

“This has been so hard on families,” Wilson said. “Of course, we know why it was necessary, but that doesn’t make it easy.”

Even Phase 3 won’t be a return to normal as it existed before the pandemic. Nursing homes will still have to limit the number of visitors while screening everyone for COVID symptoms and enforcing rules about social distancing.

Visitors will need to make appointments and wear masks, Gov. Kevin Stitt said in last week’s announcement of the nursing home policies.

“It is important we take a measured and responsible approach to allowing visitors to our nursing homes and long-term care facilities,” Stitt said. “This guidance will allow us to continue to protect the health and lives of Oklahomans while allowing them to safely resume valuable interactions with their loved ones.”

With an especially vulnerable population due to preexisting conditions, nursing homes account for as much as 43% of all COVID-19 deaths in Oklahoma, according to state Health Department data. As a result, officials put nursing homes under especially tight restrictions during the statewide shutdown.

Most nursing homes used video conferencing to help families stay in touch with residents. But “there is really no substitute for seeing your family in person,” said Matthew Loyd, vice president of health services at Methodist Manor, adding that “today is a good day because we’re reuniting families.”

“In a time when we are doing everything to protect our residents,” Loyd said, “the irony is that we can’t protect them from the loneliness that is felt when you can’t see your loved ones.”

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