Erratum - CMS guidelines say you *can* kiss and hug a loved on when you visit (but only in private)

Thank goodness for small favors

So in the last couple of articles I wrote I wanted to clarify - according to the *most* up to date rules (as of March of this year) issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) - when families or visitors come visit their residents they are, in fact, allowed to have “close contact” with their loved ones.

Here’s the most important snippet:

Like I’ve said before - thank goodness for small favors.

Now, granted, probably 80-90% of our visits take place in basically public areas - and nearly all of the rooms in our nursing home are double or four-person rooms, which means that the opportunity for our residents and visitors, during their two-hour visits, to take off their masks and share a kiss or a hug - in actual privacy - are technically very few and far between.

Also note the final phrase in the highlighted portion - the facility cannot “deny the resident their right to choose (to go unmasked in private, or hug or kiss in private"), as long as the residents’ choice does not put other residents at risk”…. which sounds ominously open-ended to me.

But, I suppose it’s progress?