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Senior care facilities in Chattanooga are taking steps to curb exposure to the coronavirus such as asking family members to avoid visits and requesting people to answer health and travel questions.
The Cleveland, Tennessee-based Life Care Centers of America, the nation's biggest private nursing home company, is asking family members, volunteers and non-essential personnel to avoid visits at this time.
"We're trying to keep the germs out," said a spokeswoman at the Life Care Center in Hixson about the measures. The company is citing new guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Life Care's facility in Kirkland, Washington, has been the focus of the coronavirus in America, with 18 deaths related to the location, according to The New York Times.
At the Manorhouse Assisted Living and Memory Care center in Chattanooga, Jordan Whitmire said the facility is not limiting visits at this time.
(MORE: Life Care says no coronavirus in Chattanooga-area facilities, limits family visits)
"We're encouraging them if they don't feel well to not visit," Whitmire said. "We're asking them not to come."
Victoria Goodloe at Alexian Brothers Home Care in Chattanooga said visitors and volunteers are asked to fill out a short questionnaire as to whether they have any illnesses or have been out of the country recently.
Also, she said, it's limiting visitors to two at a time. In addition, Goodloe said, Alexian isn't limiting children yet, though some facilities in other parts of the country are doing so.
The Health Care Center at Standifer Place is not restricting visitors as long as they don't have any symptoms of illness or fever, said Cade Walker. He said that measure is in place for both family members and volunteers.
At the NHC Healthcare nursing care facility in Chattanooga, visitors are asked to do a self-screening process, a spokesman said. The center is asking visitors questions such as whether they have a fever or a cough.
Other locations in the country are seeing tighter restrictions, according to the Times. It cites nursing homes where guests are barred because of the coronavirus, adding that "adult children talk to their parents through locked glass doors like jailhouse visitors."
"They worry it may be months before they can hug each other again. Many families are debating whether to move their frail loved ones out altogether and care for them at home," the Times said.
Last week, federal officials announced an investigation of the Washington State nursing care facility owned Life Care in connection with the coronavirus outbreak.
Seema Verma, head of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency is sending inspectors to the center along with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to figure out what happened and determine whether the nursing home followed guidelines for preventing infections.
Life Care has more than 200 skilled nursing home facilities in 28 states.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.