Bronze star shines during nursing home crisis
Clinton-Aire Healthcare Center among senior living facilities to earn AHCA/NCAL award
Some senior living facilities are setting an example for others and the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living has taken notice.
Clinton-Aire Healthcare Center in Clinton Township is one of them.
The center operated by SavaSeniorCare Adminstrative Services received the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award at the Bronze- Commitment to Quality Award level for the quality of care it has provided despite key challenges during this tumultuous time.
“Running a skilled nursing facility is challenging, particularly in today’s everchanging environment; but the Clinton-Aire team never wavered in their commitment and dedication to improving the quality of care for seniors,” said Jerry Roles, chief executive officer of SavaSeniorCare Administrative Services. “We are very proud of their accomplishment and celebrate their success.”
The award comes amidst reports that nursing homes have seen their worst spikes in new COVID-19 cases since last spring.
The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, which represents more than 14,000 nursing homes and assisted living community and the same organization that presented the award to ClintonAire, reported in November that nursing homes in the United States have experienced the worst outbreak of weekly new cases since last spring due to the community spread among the general population, surpassing previous peaks since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services started tracking cases in nursing homes.
According to Johns Hopkins University, weekly new COVID cases in the general U.S. population rose by 330% to 1,043,040 new reports the week of Nov. 15. A correlating uptick in new cases in nursing homes occurred when cases in the surrounding community started rising in mid-September. As of Dec. 7 the state of Michigan reported 1,502 new cases of COVID among long term care facilities and 225 new deaths.
“Our worst fears have come true as COVID runs rampant among the general population and long term care facilities are powerless to fully prevent it from entering due to its asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic spread,” said Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA/NCAl. “Our health care heroes are doing everything they can to prevent it from spreading further, but this level of COVID nationwide puts serious strain on our workforce, supplies and testing capacity.”
These rising levels, which show no signs of stopping along with the fact that the elderly population is the most vulnerable, are among the reasons the AHCA/NCAL has been pushing for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) make long term care residents and its staff a priority for the vaccine distribution.
“At this point, long term care facilities desperately need public health officials at every level to take emergency steps to get control of the community spread and ensure our facilities have the resources they need, as well as for the CDC to make our residents and caregivers the top priority in distributing the vaccine in order to save thousands of lives,” Parkinson said.
The AHCA/NCAL award program is a progressive, three-step process that encourages the continuous learning, development and execution of integrated quality systems to achieve performance excellence. Based on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, centers must describe their mission, characteristics and key challenges, and demonstrate an understanding of how these factors impact their ability to achieve performance improvement. The Bronze Award recognizes the provider for developing a foundation to begin a journey of continuous quality improvement.Clinton-Aire has not been immune to COVID-19.
They’ve had two residents die from the virus but are among the centers in Macomb County that have reported fewer than 20 cases since the start of the pandemic, according to information provided by an ongoing database compiled by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Clinton-Aire administrator, Dave Duffy of New Baltimore, said they were better prepared than most senior living facilities at the start of the pandemic.
“We were fortunate enough to have Personnel Protection Equipment,” he said. “We always keep a good emergency backup supply. So, as the shortage of PPE was hitting everybody else we had a decent buffer to deal with it.”
He also attributed their success to a dedicated staff, who have gone out of their way to help residents who were unable to see family members during the quarantines and ensure that they are not the ones bringing the virus to work.
“They’ve been tested at least 20 times and if you’ve been tested at all you know that it can be pretty dramatic,” Duffy said.
Every week, on Tuesday and Thursday staff members undergo the nose-swab test for COVID-19.
“I am proud of my staff for achieving quality outcomes every day, and for always striving to do the best for our residents,” said Duffy. “We consider them our family and want only the best for our residents, their families and our community.”
Other senior living facilities to receive the AHCA/ NCAL National Quality Award for 2020 included: LakePointe Senior Care and Rehab Center in Clinton Township and Sunrise of Shelby Township.