The Masks Are Off
Masks now optional at all Scheurer Health locations
For the first time in over 1,100 days, we can finally see your smiling faces once again. As of Monday, April 17, 2023, masks are no longer required at Scheurer Health locations.
Rewind to the early days of the pandemic… Directives were changing by the hour, confusion seeped from every corner of the world and instructions of how to battle this “coronavirus” were coming and going faster than a NASCAR pitstop.
Scheurer Health made the decision to require masks at each of our locations on March 27, 2020 – before even the Mayo Clinic. Since even before the shutdown occurred, we turned to and leaned on our medical staff for insight and leadership. Because of that, Scheurer was able to stay ahead of the curve and keep any outbreaks to a minimum, if not completely shut out. Fast forward to today and we remain proud of how we responded to COVID-19 with the aim of keeping our community, workforce and residents safe and healthy.
Ashley Thayer, Infection Prevention Coordinator at Scheurer Health has been in the trenches for us, monitoring community transmission rates and keeping us up-to-date and in compliance of any regulations. With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ready to roll out its new requirements, Scheurer Leadership along with the guidance of Ashley Thayer felt confident in the decision to make masks optional in all locations. This timing has been coordinated with other healthcare organizations across the State of Michigan.
Our President & CEO, Ross Ramsey, MD noted, “We appreciate everyone’s cooperation over these last three years. While it has been difficult to always follow the guidance at times, we have successfully found ourselves on the back side of a public health emergency with minimal negative impact to our community.”
Ashley Thayer shared a similar sentiment, “We sincerely thank our patients, visitors, employees and community for following our guidelines and giving us grace during this challenging time. With masking optional, we are excited to continue to provide compassionate care while also being able to see each other’s faces.”
Here are the specifics to our new “masks optional” policy:
Masks are welcomed and available, but not required
Patients may ask their care team to wear a mask
Patients with signs/symptoms of respiratory illness should wear a mask, if medically able
In order to protect our patients and employees, visitation is strongly discouraged for visitors with signs/symptoms of illness
Multiple factors played into the support for this change, including:
Availability of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics have significantly increased since the beginning of the pandemic
Masking is still encouraged for those that feel more comfortable wearing one and will continue to be provided for employees, patients and visitors
The severity of illness and hospitalization rate across our county, state, and country have drastically decreased
Available staff self-screening for signs/symptoms of illness before coming to work each day
