For many senior living owners and operators, the idea of community renovations conjures up images of shut-down areas, airborne particles, and loud noises. Still, in light of the pandemic, many communities are still considering renovations to protect current residents and staff as well as create a safe and secure environment that can mitigate the risk of infection.

Implementing modest, but impactful renovations and upgrades can deliver results without undertaking full-scale renovations. Given the immediate need to address COVID-19 concerns, incremental approaches have allowed communities to achieve a significant degree of functional and operational normalcy, while avoiding the disruption, cost, and extended timelines of larger renovations.

These proactive and creative approaches can be categorized into three areas, including operational considerations, furniture staging, and technology advances, and can be tailored to the specific needs, financial considerations, and priorities of a community.

Here’s a look at each:


1. Operational considerations to promote safety.
Operational considerations that some communities are already successfully implementing include administrative policy and operational updates, such as delineating a clear entry and exiting sequence and directional routing for resident and staff circulation, as a means to limit unnecessary cross contamination. Providing localized storage and supply centers for specific building zones reduces the need for staff to cross through other areas to retrieve supplies. And repurposing rooms adjacent to a main entry point can create designated areas for residents to safely meet with family or visitors without moving through the community.

2. Furniture staging to address short-term needs for flexibility and repurposing.
Furniture staging within existing amenity spaces has been implemented to augment the physical environment to support social distancing needs, but also to adapt spaces to be more flexible or tailored for temporary or longer-term needs. Creating hot and safe zones lends flexibility to spaces that the community can use to address needs as they shift on a day-to-day basis.

Similarly, creating clean rooms, such as showers, laundry, and back-of-house circulation, allows staff to prepare for work and clean up afterwards. Dedicated administrative, medical, and emergency control rooms provide space for addressing daily challenges and establishing protocols and logistics. Additionally, reorganizing food service venues, including circulation flow and table spacing, and adding more outdoor seating options allow for food service to occur in a socially distanced and safe manner for both residents and staff.

3. Technology advances to enhance environments.
Several technology advances have been especially valuable in addressing the challenges of mitigating the spread of the COVID-19 while allowing communities to maintain operations. For example, touchless and automated amenities, such as faucets and hand dryers, as well as Wi-Fi and voice-activated mechanisms help to limit virus transmission from actively touched fixtures and surfaces. Similarly, using electrostatic spray-applied antiviral coating to protect finishes and surfaces of furnishings helps to keep them sanitized for extended durations.

Upgrading HVAC control systems to provide more outside air circulation and replacing filters with appropriate higher-rated types help to limit airborne viruses. Also, retrofitting existing luminaires with germicidal UV lighting in resident, staff, and common areas also supports a community’s mitigation efforts.

Despite the persistent nature of the pandemic, owners and operators have successfully implemented these and other measures, customized to their communities’ needs. The results add up to a safer and more secure resident experience in the thousands of existing environments for aging across the nation.

Steve Benesh is Project Design Manager at StudioSix5 (Austin, Texas). He can be reached at steve@studiosix5.com.