Holyoke answers sought
Differing views offered on what caused deadly outbreak
Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders believes that a lack of preparation and infection control protocols, rather than staffing issues or the background of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home’s superintendent, was the biggest factor behind a tragic COVID19 outbreak that struck the facility last spring.
Nurses who worked in the long-term care facility for veterans, however, do not agree.
Joan Miller, a member of the Massachusetts Nurses Association union and a registered nurse at the home, told lawmakers on Thursday that she thinks much of the suffering — at least 76 veteran deaths have been tied to a potent outbreak that hit the home in March 2020 — could have been avoided if state officials had hired someone licensed as a nursing home administrator to run the facility.
“If we had had a licensed medical administrator, whatever the terms are, I believe that this would not have happened,” Miller said.
A special legislative commission convened to investigate the springtime crisis at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home. The panel heard hours of testimony and competing views on the role that staffing and qualification issues played.
Several speakers, including Miller, contended that the tenure of former Superintendent Bennett Walsh, who was in charge during the outbreak, is evidence that the state should prioritize hiring leaders with licensing and experience to lead long-term care facilities.
Gov. Charlie Baker appointed Walsh, a 24-year military veteran who had little experience in clinical or residential care, to oversee the Holyoke home in May 2016. Former U.S. Attorney Mark Pearlstein flagged that inexperience as a factor in a report investigating the circumstances of the many deaths.
Sudders, the Baker administration’s health care chief, expressed skepticism that someone with different qualifications could have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic differently if the structural issues remained.
“I don’t think one person would have been able to have stopped that, unless they had put into place those policies,” Sudders said.
Kevin Jourdain, a member and former chair of the Holyoke home’s board of trustees, told the committee that he believes a new permanent superintendent “needs be a licensed nursing home administrator.”
The current acting superintendent, Michael Lazo, does not have that certification.
Walsh and former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home medical director David Clinton face criminal neglect charges for their role in the outbreak, with Attorney General Maura Healey alleging their decision to combine separate wards exposed patients who did not have the highly infectious virus to those who did.
Lawmakers have chosen to wait on reforms sought by Baker until after the panel completes its investigation.