Here’s our plan to keep moving forward safely:

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the world, and on our community. This has been incredibly hard on our staff, our families and most-of-all, our residents. We have more than a business relationship- it is a partnership among people that depend upon one another- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Every day, I have been concerned for and extremely proud of our employees that courageously arrive to work to do a job that cannot be put on hold.

For nearly 7 months, our companies were spared exposure to the virus altogether.  Ultimately, no facilities in our market have been able to avoid infection-Transcendent Healthcare was no exception.  We responded with a unified effort to limit the damage and loss caused by this invisible enemy and to emerge from the pandemic safely and with resolve to protect ours from further incidents.

Recently, vaccines have been evaluated and made available under Emergency Use Authorization to help curb the spread of COVID-19.  While we are not experts in vaccines, we have reviewed the scientific findings and have elected to take an aggressive approach to vaccine promotion- after all, this remains a public health emergency.

Based upon tracing of our own exposures, each of our initial cases were likely the result of community spread- in other words, the virus likely entered our homes via an employee or a visitor with no symptoms of the illness.  In either case, we know they had only the best intentions but the truth is that a vaccine may well have prevented these exposures.

As of January 16, our Transcendent facilities are COVID-19 free once again- And we are doing our very best to stay that way. We feel the keys to our recovery plan will continue to be:

• Aggressive social distancing and infection control precautions and use of masks and other personal protective equipment, provided by our facilities
• Ongoing (re)training and testing of employees and residents and work restrictions relating to any future staff exposures
• Improved telemedicine access in conjunction with regional Health Systems
• On-site isolation capabilities in the event of exposure
• Mandatory vaccinations for all Transcendent employees, except those with physician-provided medical exemptions
• Facility-provided vaccination of new and existing residents, subject to CDC guidelines

We along with all of you remain one community.  We are looking forward to re-establishing Transcendent’s focus on being our communities’ leading provider of skilled nursing and rehabilitative healthcare. Please be empathetic to those on the front lines and please participate in life-saving precautions like masking, social-distancing and hand-sanitizing; at home, at work and in public.

Respectfully,

Tom O’Niones
President and Owner
Transcendent Healthcare