The last few months have been a journey and we’ve learned a lot. First and foremost, how a rapid response culture starting with early preparation, monitoring daily developments of COVID-19 and quickly evolving to incorporate new protection practices has paid off. Working proactively with federal, state and local health experts has resulted in managing the risk to both residents and staff — to the point that we’ve had times— where amid a total of 4,500 combined residents and staff across the west coast, we’ve been free of diagnosed COVID-19 cases company-wide. Clearly that remains our goal.

That said, each day and each week we are enduring new challenges that arise.  As of today, we have 6 residents and 13 staff members who have tested positive for coronavirus. The impacted communities are Bellevue, Issaquah, Callahan House, Kirkland, Fremont, Marymoor and Las Vegas. We have developed a partnership with a private testing lab that has given us new access to testing. As such, we have developed a testing practice, based on expert guidance, and focused on contact tracing – identifying and testing those staff or residents that may have been in contact with anyone positive.  Families are always notified immediately via email and kept abreast of any new test results. We remain vigilant in our protection practices that continue to help us manage the spread of the virus. And our thoughts and support are with those staff recovering at home and with our residents that we are safely caring for as they recover.

This week we are adding one more layer of protection for residents and staff. With access to more supply of personal protective equipment (PPE), we’ll begin asking residents to wear a surgical mask that we can provide each time they leave their apartments.

Aegis Superheroes at work…

When preparation meets opportunity, you never know how many lives you can save. When Moraga GM Bill Phelps and Pleasant Hill GM Luis Olivas got a call for help from a nearby hospital needing hand sanitizer, they jumped into action. With their own communities prepared, they decided to heed a call for help from the Walnut Creek Medical Center — which had a critical need for sanitizer and other types of PPE.  Together the Aegis teams donated over 75 gallons of hand sanitizer on behalf of Aegis.

Other Aegis communities are offering a helping hand in their local cities — from Aegis Living Laguna Niguel partnering with the Orange County Sheriff’s department to pack bags of food for needy seniors  to — Aegis Gardens Newcastle coordinating a dry goods drive with the local YMCA and city to gather and distribute goods to seniors in need.  

Aegis and the Clark Foundation are continuing to drive fundraising for several vulnerable senior-focused non-profit organizations in the Seattle-area.  Aegis is partnering with Bartell Drugs to support the Pike Market Senior Center/Food Bank and Sound Generations (Meals on Wheels), all delivering food and supplies to homeless and in-need seniors. To date we have raised more than $225,000 of support for these organizations. Learn more here.  https://www.seattleseniorsstrong.com/  

Perhaps nothing makes us prouder of where Aegis Living is today, than being able to humbly celebrate the Good Samaritans in our midst. They are anonymous heroes to many.