Doctor accused of working at nursing home while infected with COVID-19

SEATTLE — As the novel coronavirus ravaged nursing homes in the early weeks of the pandemic, a doctor continued to see elderly and frail patients at one Renton facility despite having symptoms and then testing positive for COVID-19, a lawsuit alleges.

Dr. Nishita Bhumkar — under the direction of her boss, Dr. Darren Swenson, who runs Swenson Health Care, a service that places doctors in post-acute care facilities — told no one at the nursing home and filled out a screening checklist as if everything was fine, according to the allegations.

In time, at least 52 residents and 47 staff members became infected with the coronavirus at Renton Nursing and Rehabilitation Center — an outbreak that the lawsuit attributes to Bhumkar and Swenson. Nine people have died.

“The thing that is really shocking is the doctor knew she was infected and went on to sign a form that said she wasn’t,” said Dan Weiskopf, a lawyer representing the rehabilitation center, which cares for people who are sick or have recently left a hospital.

While the pandemic has generated many lawsuits, the intentional conduct makes this one stands out, he said.

“I haven’t seen anything like it in the country,” he said.

The lawsuit — filed in King County Superior Court by the nursing home against the doctors, Swenson Healthcare and another company Swenson runs — may also test who can be blamed for the spread of the virus during a chaotic time.

“In long-term care facilities and other congregate settings, it is hard to trace back where each person got infected and who they got infected from,” said Sharon Bogan, a spokeswoman for Public Health — Seattle & King County. “For example, there may be transmission between residents, between health care workers, and between health care workers and residents.”

Francis Floyd, the attorney representing the defendants, said the Renton Nursing and Rehabilitation Center patients who contracted COVID-19 did so “well after” the facility ended its contract with Swenson Healthcare. The nursing home won’t be able to prove that Bhumkar caused the outbreak, Floyd said.

The lawyer also said Bhumkar followed the guidelines issued at the time by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the state Department of Health (DOH). He added the complaint contained “totally, absolutely false” statements.

According to the timeline laid out in the complaint, Bhumkar, an internal medicine specialist, came down with COVID-19 symptoms March 10 and let Swenson know the following day.

Swenson had by that time issued a memo saying that employees with such symptoms “will not be permitted to return to work until cleared by their physician in coordination with health department and/or CDC officials as appropriate.”

Yet, according to the lawsuit, he told Bhumkar not to get tested or treated, and instructed her to keep working rather than quarantining herself.