COVID-19 Announcement

As you all are very much aware, the Bethel Community recently experienced an outbreak of COVID-19 on our campus. We were required to restrict visitation until all residents and staff were free from COVID. Through the dedication and hard work of the Bethel staff we are happy to announce that we can begin Phase 1 of the State of South Dakota Back to Normal Long-Term Care Reopening Plan. We will begin outside visitation on September 9, 2020.

Due to the increased risk COVID-19 poses to our nursing home and assisted living residents, the South Dakota Department of Health, South Dakota Department of Human Services, South Dakota Association of Healthcare, and the South Dakota Healthcare Association have developed criteria for advancing through phases of reopening long-term care facilities. The Bethel Community will begin with the most restrictive phase, Phase I, and continue through Phase III. We may be required to change phases (advance or regress) based on a stair-step criterion dependent on community spread and the absence of COVID-19 within the facility. The reopening plan allows the administrator and the governing board of the facilities to direct and advance through the phases following and completing the steps in each phase of the plan. Once the facility has completed Phase I and Phase II, the provider would remain in Phase III of the plan until the pandemic declaration has been lifted.

Visitation will look a little different than it did in the past, but these steps are necessary to protect those that we care about so much.  A visitor is considered blood relative, the resident’s personal representative, or significant other/friend.  Please call the business office at Bethel Lutheran Home to schedule each visit or if you have questions.

We ask that everyone cooperates with Bethel Lutheran Community’s visitation procedures that have been established and continue to be patient as we navigate through this process.