Protecting the elderly against COVID-19 infection is a pressing concern for everyone operating senior living communities.
The greater susceptibility of seniors to the virus, as well as the many unknowns still surrounding its transmission, make prevention and proper management critical. Exactly what does this involve, and what do operators of such facilities need to know about keeping their residents safe?
'Expensive or potentially financially burdensome'
According to Barry Kaganson, CEO of Auria Senior Living - which develops and manages senior living communities in South Africa - several operational measures are required to protect the elderly against COVID-19 infection within retirement village environments.
“Most of these measures are expensive or potentially financially burdensome. They are also largely unbudgeted expenses. COVID-19 was upon us quickly, and measures need to be implemented with haste,” says Kaganson.
Retirement villages need to be in a strong financial position in order to be able to implement these measures, or else they need to have the finances readily available.
Immediate costs include: hand sanitiser; masks; overtime pay for staff; the accommodation of staff onsite or nearby to minimise commuting (which increases risk of infection); furniture, linen, toiletries and other items for staff being accommodated; incentives and bonuses for staff to compensate them for the more stringent working conditions and higher risks; protective clothing and equipment for care workers; and extra cleaning of high-touch areas.
Auria Senior Living has already seen the cost impact first-hand.
“In response to the COVID-19 crisis, we procured over 500 litres of hand sanitiser; several thousand face masks and N95 masks; protective clothing for care staff, and 400 flu vaccines. We’ve also arranged accommodation for over 100 staff members, either on site, in rented apartments or in rented guest houses close to work. These staff also require meals, toiletries etc which we have supplied. This spend already totals millions of rands,” says Kaganson.
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“All of these emergency measures need to be put in place in a matter of days, if not hours,” says Kaganson. “Decisions need to be made quickly and funds need to be readily available, because when supplies run short, suppliers require cash-on-delivery payments.”
This points to the importance of having a good management structure in place, together with a ‘war chest’ of funds for times such as this. It isn’t business as usual, and the ability to act quickly and be flexible could save lives. Management resources need to be made available to support staff to carry out their duties – which can be difficult in cases where certain services are outsourced.
The two most common models for retirement living are sectional title residential and life rights communities. In a sectional title estate, the body corporate is responsible for making decisions, and its agents or appointees for carrying them out. It is questionable whether a body corporate of aged residents would be able to act expeditiously. “In a life rights scenario, the operator is not only financially incentivised in the long term to deliver the best outcome for their residents, but they also have the management capacity to facilitate the steps required for the protection of residents,” says Kaganson, which makes this the preferable option.
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“At Auria, we simply make a decision to fund such necessities out of our reserves,” says Kaganson.
“These are non-budgeted items, yet they are vital for us to afford our residents the protection they need. This may put upward pressure on levies in future (across the board) as retirement villages build up reserves for such eventualities. These weren’t necessarily contemplated in the past, and essentially could represent a new risk which needs to be kept in mind,” says Kaganson.
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