Greenville nursing home inching back to normal life a year after COVID outbreak

GREENVILLE — Nearly a year after outbreak, daily life looks more normal at Greenville nursing home.

“Frightening. Uneasiness.”

Those are two words Debbie Baker, admissions and marketing director at Ayden Healthcare of Greenville uses to describe last spring. The Greenville nursing home, formally Greenville Health & Rehabilitation, was home to one of the Miami Valley’s largest outbreaks early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, with 75 patients infected and 17 deaths between in the spring of 2020.

A year later, though, Baker believes the nursing home is on the other side of the pandemic, with life beginning to inch back toward normal.

“We’re making it through, one step at a time, together,” Baker said.

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Earlier this year, the nursing facility received vaccine doses from Pfizer, and held vaccine clinics that led to the vaccination of 90 percent of residents, and approximately 50 percent of staff at Ayden Healthcare, Baker said. But on top of that, the facility welcomed other medical and nursing professionals from the area to its clinics, to help in the vaccination effort.

Now, with Spring 2021 on the horizon, some things are beginning to look a bit more like they used to – with certain social activities back, albeit socially distanced and with masks.

And while the facility began allowing indoor visits in the fall, those got put on hold again with a resurgence of COVID in the community. Visitation began again this week, as Phase 1A vaccination efforts have led to a dramatic drop in skilled nursing facility COVID cases across Ohio.

“We have a lot of residents who have been fully vaccinated and are going to be returning to church, they can go to Wal Mart and go shopping, because we know they’re safeguarded now,” Baker said.

Nearly a year after Ohio’s first COVID case, Baker is optimistic.

“It’s a blessing to look back and the trials and tribulations we experienced and where we are now,” she said.

Cox Media Group