“When COVID-19 cases hit close to home across our 20+ Rocky Mountain Care facilities, we made the decision to shut our doors to visitors. Our patients and residents felt the isolation due to being separated from families, friends, clergy, and each other. However, our caring team members put our motto of ‘Simply the best care’ into action and found creative ways to keep our patients, residents, and employees safe and happy.

Eddie Bangerter
CEO, Rocky Mountain Care

The American Health Care Association (AHCA) has released its new, short documentary titled, “Closed Doors, Open Hearts: Nursing Homes and COVID-19.”

The film provides an intimate look at of the day-to-day reality of the COVID-19 pandemic in two long term care facilities. Ararat Nursing Facility is a non-profit organization founded in 1949 that operates three residential care and nursing facilities on two campuses in Los Angeles and serves as a cultural center for the Armenian community. The Edgewood Centre is a family owned,150-bed senior care and rehab facility in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with the mission to provide resident-driven care. These two providers are different in many ways – from geography to the sheer facility size – but they shared many of the same experiences throughout the course of the pandemic.

Despite repeated requests for assistance, long term care facilities were not made a priority by public health agencies. Like many providers across the country, Ararat and Edgewood were forced to cope with inadequate and delayed access to testing and a national shortage of personal protective equipment.