Greencroft Communities Stories

While visitations at Greencroft Goshen were restricted to window visits due to the increased spread of COVID-19 in the community, the team at Goshen Healthcare got together to devise a special visitation window. This new window has enhanced visits between residents and families by utilizing the installation of a glove that allows for more contact as well as a microphone and speaker so they can talk with one another.

“Since COVID started back in March the leadership team has been gathering once a week to talk about how we can enhance our response as leaders at Greencroft,” Says Cheryl Shriener, Director of Life Enhancement. “From those meetings we learned about frustrations our staff were having with the visitation restrictions and how it was negatively affecting our residents’ psychosocial well-being. That’s when we came up with a committee to help enhance those visits, and the idea for this visitation window actually came from that!”

With a little research, the team put together a plan for the visitation window which was then executed by Greencroft’s Ryan Beck. Ryan removed the window glass pane at the chosen location and replaced it with plexiglass. A hole was cut through the middle with a bag attached. Ryan then bought and installed speakers like the ones that bank tellers use. Recently, the bag was replaced with a veterinary glove that goes up to your elbow. While using the glove is a little strange at first, residents have expressed how much they love being able to hold their loved one’s hand and how they can actually feel the warmth of their touch through the glove.

“Not having to use iPhones or iPads to interact with their families is just wonderful for them. It has been such a success that we have already identified four other locations where we’d like to install the same visitation window,” Cheryl explained.

We are so proud of our Greencroft staff across all of our campuses for being creative and coming up with new ways for residents to visit and interact with their families and loved ones while also remaining safe. While this is a challenging time for all, we feel that it has only brought us closer together. We look forward to seeing the implementation of the four additional visitation windows, as well as the smiles on our residents faces when they are using them!