7 nursing homes to be isolation sites

Blaire House in Tewksbury is among those helping state with patients.

At least seven Massachusetts nursing homes have set up isolation spaces to care for coronavirus-positive patients as hospitalizations spike across the Bay State.

The state and nursing homes assure family members that these COVID-19 units are isolated away from residents and the areas are completely closed off, but advocates and loved ones are sounding the alarm.

They say that the state’s “isolation space policy” to cohort COVID-19 patients at nursing homes is putting the most vulnerable population at risk of infection.

“The virus has been so deadly in nursing homes, where the population is so vulnerable,” state Rep. Ruth Balser, House Chair on the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs, told the Herald on Wednesday.

“I’ve raised questions about this being a risky policy,” Balser also added.

As of Wednesday, 6,946 coronavirus deaths have been reported at Bay State long-term care facilities. It comes as the state reported another 5,675 new cases and 89 more deaths.

Now as hospitalizations surge across Massachusetts, several nursing homes are creating separate units for COVID-positive patients being discharged from other settings, as part of the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services isolation-space policy.

The six nursing homes currently participating in the isolation-space program are Neville Center at Fresh Pond in Cambridge; Jewish Healthcare Center in Worcester; Blaire House LTCF of Tewksbury; Hannah Duston Healthcare Center in Haverhill; Maples Rehabilitation and

Nursing Center in Wrentham; and Brandon Woods of Dartmouth.

Willow Manor in Lowell announced on Tuesday that it’s converting a 10-bed unit to care for COVID-19 patients, but Willow Manor is not on the state’s list for the isolation-space program.

A nursing home can establish a dedicated COVID-positive space within their facility, independent of the state’s isolation-space program.

Balser, a Newton Democrat, said she has raised concerns about the isolation-space policy with Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders.

“The administration has stood by this policy, even though I raised serious concerns about it,” Balser said.

She noted that the state is opening three field hospitals, adding, “That would seem to be a better place for step-down patients, rather than a nursing home.”