4/7/20, “[Maryland Gov.] Hogan announces ‘strike teams’ for responding to coronavirus outbreaks at nursing homes," Baltimore Sun, Kevin Rector, Luke Broadwater, Scott Dance
“Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Tuesday announced the creation of “strike teams” to provide immediate support to nursing homes experiencing outbreaks of coronavirus cases across the state.
At least 90 such facilities have confirmed cases of the virus in Maryland, Hogan said. One in Carroll County — Pleasant View Nursing Home in Mount Airys — has experienced at least 17 deaths as of Tuesday and dozens of other infections among residents and staff. The strike teams, composed of healthcare workers from local hospitals, National Guard members and other front-line public health personnel from state and local health departments, will be capable of providing three forms of support, Hogan said.
They will oversee testing and guide efforts to separate exposed residents and staff from others; provide logistics support and equipment while helping to triage patients who are believed to have been exposed; and bring medical supplies and workers directly to the facilities to help avoid unnecessary transfers of patients to local hospitals, Hogan said….
The announcement followed Hogan’s emergency order Sunday that mandated nursing homes use expedited testing options to identify infections more quickly among symptomatic residents and staff, and required that all nursing home staff wear masks, gowns and other protective equipment when interacting with residents….
However, the mandates fall short of requiring all staff at nursing homes across the state to be tested for the virus — despite signs that such action could be a major factor in preventing further spread. That’s partly because of a lack of tests nationwide.
Some industry leaders question whether the state efforts will be enough to slow the spread of the COVID-19 illness in nursing homes given that lack of testing, and a similar lack of protective gear.
Both Hogan and Fran Phillips, deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Health, have said they believe the coronavirus is spreading through the state’s nursing homes — and entered Pleasant View — via staff members who are not showing any symptoms of infection.
“There were no symptomatic staff. No visitors. It must have been staff coming into a nursing home and unwittingly carrying the virus,” Phillips said Monday in an interview with The Baltimore Sun.
Phillips said the state is testing all nursing home workers that have symptoms of coronavirus, but is not able to test asymptomatic staff due to the lack of tests.
“We are still in a national shortage of the basic raw materials that are necessary to do these tests,” Phillips said. “It is a continuing source of frustration.”
At Pleasant View Nursing Home, where some staff also work at other facilities, Phillips said it’s important to track where the infection came from.
But she and other state officials have not answered questions about what tracking efforts may be underway to determine the movement of those workers, and what role the state and local health departments are playing in that effort.
At Pleasant View, there are now temperature checks and screening questions to the enter the facility, she said.
Phillips said the state is following CDC guidelines for how to use its limited testing resources. Once enough tests are available, she said, “we want to test a huge range of people.”
She also cited the new mandate for all nursing home staff to wear protective gear when they interact with patients.
“That’s as important as testing to interrupt the spread,” Phillips said.
Phillips said nursing homes are expected to purchase supplies, but the state would offer help for nursing homes that need more resources.”
Added: Elizabeth, NJ: “Eight members of the staff have also contracted the virus, including the director of nursing and a physician who have both been hospitalized, and four others are awaiting test results.
4/8/20, “NJ Nursing Home Has 22 Residents Die in Just Over Two Weeks, [Elizabeth, NJ] Mayor Says,” nbcnewyork.com, Brian Thompson, Tom Shea
“Ten of the deaths were confirmed cases of COVID-19, while the other 12 are awaiting test results or were never tested.” “A New Jersey city mayor is sounding the alarm after a nursing home in the community has had nearly two dozen residents die in two and a half weeks, he says.
Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage told NBC New York that 22 individuals at the Elizabeth Nursing and Rehabilitation Center have died dating back to March 21. Ten of those residents had confirmed cases of COVID-19,while the other 12 were never tested or were awaiting results when they died.
The deceased individuals represent more than 20 percent of patients at the Grove Street center, which has 102 beds in total, the mayor said. There are still 58 residents at the facility — 12 of whom have tested positive for coronavirus, according to Bollwage. Eight members of the staff have also contracted the virus, including the director of nursing and a physician who have both been hospitalized, and four others are awaiting test results.
Emails obtained by News 4 show that the first group of individuals from the nursing home was brought to Trinitas Regional Medical Center on the weekend of March 21-22. Of those initial seven, one died and another was in critical.
At that time, Elizabeth’s Health Officer Mark Colicchio reached out to the state’s Department of Health to report a possible outbreak at the facility, email records show. In response, the department requested information regarding the patients, a list of nursing home residents and staff with respiratory symptoms, and instructions regarding how to handle coronavirus (like using proper equipment and isolating possibly infected patients, canceling communal activities, screening staff and thoroughly cleaning the facility).
Colicchio also instructed the facility not to accept any new patients. Four days later, the nursing center sent the city and state Health Departments a “respiratory listing” of patients (no staff were said to have yet called out sick with symptoms). Soon after, Colicchio told the DOH that five center residents had died, the obtained emails show, with one previously having tested positive for COVID-19. Colicchio asked the department if there was a “plan of action is for this facility,” calling it a “very serious matter that needs to be addressed immediately.”
The DOH acknowledged there was an exposure at the nursing home and said it wanted to “give the facility two weeks to see whether or not their infection control measures have been working,” according to the Elizabeth health director.
Colicchio said that decision to wait put the lives of nursing home residents, staff and first responders in jeopardy — not to mention the patients and staff at the hospital who had flagged the uptick. In just three days, the number of residents that had been hospitalized nearly tripled to 13, and eight had died. By April 1, 12 residents had died in the hospital (four who tested positive, with results still coming for seven of them) and 11 were still being treated (nine who tested positive).
By this time, Colicchio was growing frustrated with both the nursing home and the DOH regarding the lack of reporting or action being taken to address the rapidly spreading disease.
“There were times this facility couldn’t even give me a proper update on their residents who were in the hospitals [which] I feel is totally disgraceful. Please explain why I know more about what happens to their patient than they do?,” Colicchio asked in an email to the department.
“This is getting more serious by the way and for each day no action is taken by the NJDOH more people’s lives are in danger. This is an urgent matter,” he ended another email.
As of April 8, 22 of the nursing center’s residents had died either at the hospital or at the facility itself. Colicchio said in one of the emails that the infection control measures were not working as more and more residents were being taken to the hospital, and on average one person per day was dying.
“This is serious and your agency really needs to do something about it immediately,” the health officer said in a reply to a DOH email requesting more information. “I can’t stress enough how emergent this situation is and every moment that passes residents, staff and first responders are in danger.”
Mayor Bollwage said Trinitas Medical Center “kept calling us to ask what’s going on with this nursing home,” and that neither he nor Colicchio have been able to get in contact with the center in recent days. The nursing home did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC New York.
The state Department of Health said in a statement that “long-term care facilities continue to be severely impacted. 188 of our long-term care facilities in the state have at least 1 COVID-19 case. The Department of Health is working on a statewide plan to assist nursing homes experiencing large outbreaks and also shortages of staff and equipment.”
That plan involves identifying which patients do and don’t have the virus, and moving them around accordingly, according to the statement.
Positive coronavirus cases have reached over half of all of New Jersey’s nursing homes, accounting for 10 percent of the state’s total fatalities from the virus, officials said.”
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Added: New Milford, NJ; Six staff members test positive in New Milford, NJ nursing home
4/1/20, “Coronavirus News: 5 dead at New Jersey nursing home, 22 residents and staff test positive,” abc7NY.com, New Milford, NJ
“Five residents of a nursing home in New Jersey have died of COVID-19 related complications, while nearly two dozen residents and staff have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Care One at New Milford, known as Woodcrest, has converted two of its centers to become COVID-capable care units.
Officials say that beginning in mid-March, some residents and staff started showing signs of respiratory illness. Physicians have since confirmed that five residents who passed away tested positive for COVID-19, along with 16 residents and six staff members.
They expect these numbers to rise and say that other deaths are being investigated to see if they are also COVID-19 related.
“CareOne at New Milford intends to support our Bergen County hospitals in dealing with this pandemic, and we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our hospital partners to fight and win this war,” CareOne officials said in a statement. “We know that everyone in the New Milford community has felt the impact of COVID-19.”
New Jersey’s health commissioner said there has been at least one confirmed case reported at 93 long-term facilities in the state.”
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