GREEN BAY, Wis (NBC 26) -- With Wisconsin's Supreme Court ruling that businesses can reopen immediately, a State Representative from Two Rivers, Wisconsin is encouraging nursing homes to reopen for visitations.
Today NBC26 spoke with Sondra Norder, the President of a Saint Paul Elder Services which is an assisted living facility in Green Bay. Norder says nursing homes like her facility will likely not be reopening immediately for visitors because they follow guidelines given by the CDC, Medicaid and Medicare services which are federal agencies rather than local.
"The families of our residents, for the most part, have a good grasp that the safer at home order is actually not what was preventing them from coming in. It was actually a federal mandate," says Norder.
On Thursday State Representative Shae Sortwell shared that while the guidelines may still be in place for assisted living facilities to keep visitors out, there are no longer mandates from the state in place.
"I'm not saying let's open up the doors and let everybody wander in there every day. Maybe nursing homes can still make responsible decisions to not allow everybody to visit every day. But, those people have been locked away for two months, family visitation is what they have to live for."
Meanwhile, Norder says that staff at Saint Paul Elder Services are currently working on setting guidelines, to help them safely open up to visitors once again. Norder adds that as of Thursday, there is no concrete time at which that will happen.
