The OHI Safety Bubble
If you’ve been receiving our emails, then you know we’ve been working hard to enhance our guests’ experience, while also providing a safer environment. We established community health guidelines for all of our on-campus community members – guests, missionaries and staff – making OHI the safest place to be outside of your home.
100% Safety Record = 0 Transmissions
We are proud to share with you – since the pandemic started, we’ve had zero transmissions of Covid-19 on campus. We attribute our 100% safety record to the following protocols:
Our 3-step guest screening process:
- Step 1 - At the time of reservation: We pre-screen to qualify guests for on-campus stays. Anyone experiencing cold or flu-like symptoms will be required to book their reservation 4 weeks after they are symptom-free.
- Step 2 - Before guests arrive: We check in with our guests 3-5 days before their arrival to ensure they qualify to be on our campus.
- Step 3 - On arrival: Per CDC protocols, we monitor temperatures of all incoming guests, using non-contact thermometers. We will continue to take guests’ temperatures at their request.
On-campus testing: We recently implemented a rapid, non-invasive, pain-free screening method that detects coronavirus through saliva, called TestTheTeam. The testing method is designed to test groups of people who interact with one another on a regular basis and are not experiencing common Covid-19 symptoms and it has been shown to be as accurate and as sensitive as the RT-PCR – the gold standard in Covid-19 testing. Here’s how it works:
- On Sundays and Wednesdays, all of our on-campus community members (guests, missionaries, and staff) are required to participate in the rapid Covid-19 group testing.
- The test consists of gargling a mouthwash for 10 seconds, spitting solution/saliva into a tube, and sealing the tube. It’s that simple!
- The tests are administered in groups of 4 people. Once we collect 4 tubes from a group, we send the tubes to the lab and receive results in 24-30 hours.
- A “detected” or “not-detected” result will be given for the group. Individuals will not be singled-out or identified as having coronavirus.
- If a group receives a “not-detected” result, we know that each individual in the group does not have coronavirus.
- If a group receives a “detected” result, then each person in the group will immediately quarantine (restricting the spread of the virus) and be instructed to contact their healthcare provider, and then be sent for diagnostic testing before any individual displays symptoms.
Smaller cohorts: We have fewer people on campus, including guests, staff and missionaries. OHI San Diego is limited to 60 guests on our 2-acre campus; OHI Austin is limited to 20 guests on our 14-acre campus.
Physical distancing: We support physical distancing by booking our guests in single-occupancy rooms (one person per room), keeping 6-feet of distance between us at all times, and limiting the number of guests allowed in each classroom. This allows us to balance staying connected with each other while safely practicing physical distancing.
Trained staff: From the moment we became aware of the COVID-19 back in March of 2020, our staff immediately established safety protocols for the OHI community:
- We formed a compliance team to actively monitor the COVID-19 situation to ensure we not only follow the most-current CDC and county-prescribed safety protocols, but to ensure we exceed those standards.
- Before each work shift, if one of our staff members or missionaries exhibit any symptoms of cold or flu, they do not come to work.
- For those who do come to work - before every shift - each employee and missionary is required to take their temperature and if they exhibit a temperature of 100-degrees Fahrenheit or higher, they are sent home.
Food handling: Food is solely handled by our trained kitchen staff. Our kitchen staff wear gloves, face masks, and face shields during food preparation and during mealtime service.
Clean facilities: We follow a comprehensive safety plan that involves three major pillars: 1) minimizing infectious diseases from entering the OHI campus, 2) sterilizing the campus, guest rooms, and public areas to reduce the likelihood of disease transmission, 3) and conducting Covid-19 testing twice weekly with our on-campus community members: guests, missionaries and staff.
- We use electrostatic spray disinfection systems and only safe, non-chemical cleaners in our guest rooms, common areas, and kitchens.
- We have Molekule air purifiers in each guest room, classroom, and large common areas. These air purifiers destroy a wide range of pollutants, including allergens, volatile organic compounds, bacteria, mold, and viruses.
- We increased sanitation in all of our departments across our campuses, Including regular cleaning of doorknobs, light switches, and other surfaces around our campuses. Additionally, we sanitize and deep-clean our kitchens and community bathrooms on a regular basis.
- We put extra emphasis on keeping our dining hall and water stations sanitized before, during, and after mealtimes.
- We continue to provide alcohol-based hand-sanitizer stations in a variety of places on our campuses (public bathrooms, classrooms, etc.) – especially areas that concern food (dining area, wheatgrass juice room, and food prep classrooms).