State empties nursing home
Patients removed from Norwich facility amid outbreak that killed 4
The state Department of Public Health Wednesday took the extraordinary step of removing all of the patients from a Norwich nursing home where four have died and at least 27 infected amid a coronaviurs outbreak.
The announcement comes days after the state appointed a temporary manager to oversee the troubled nursing home, where state inspection reports have uncovered a broad range of alleged missteps related to managing the spread of COVID-19 at the facility. The manager said staff shortages and the lack of supervision were so severe she concluded she could not meet the state’s deadline for improving conditions at the home.
The process of moving the 53 residents is expected to take several weeks. At a press conference at Norwich City Hall, acting DPH commissioner Deidre S. Gifford called the removal of all the residents from Three Rivers an “extraordinary step.”
“This is a difficult and sad step to take, but the department has concluded it is in the best interests of the residents and their families,” Gifford said.
About 17 COVID-19 patients from Three Rivers Healthcare will be transferred to the Riverside Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in East Hartford, while another 29 who are COVID-negative will be moved to nursing homes near Norwich. The seven residents who are currently under observation for the virus also will be moved to Riverside.
State Sen. Cathy Osten, a
Democrat who represents Norwich and other surrounding communities, said that the residents and their families deserve answers as to what happened at Three Rivers. The deaths, she said, are “totally inexcusable and totally preventable had proper precautions been taken and standard coronavirus procedures been followed.”
Late last week DPH appointed Katharine Sacks as the temporary managerto run the facility and released an inspection report that found numerous serious violations at Three Rivers related to infection control, staffing and other issues.
Sacks said it took her about 30 hours in the facility to realize that residents needed to be removed and that there was no way she could bring back into compliance by the state’s deadline of Sept. 30.
“I realized the building blocks of compliance weren’t here,” Sacks said. She added she has been appointed a temporary manager of a long-term care facility about 30 times and had “never been in a facility she didn’t think could be brought up to compliance.”
Sacks said there was a severe staff shortage, lack of training for staff and no competent oversight of staff that was there.
In a statement, the nursing home owners, JACC Health Center of Norwich, said that it supported Gifford’s order to move all patients out of the facility. While Gifford’s executive order doesn’t actually close Three Rivers, it is unclear how it would operate without any residents[b].[/b]
“Since the initial COVID outbreak, we have been cooperating with the State Department of Public Health to bring our facility into full compliance with state andfederal regulations, including the engagement
of a Temporary Manager to oversee the facility,” the statement said. Following an initial assessment, the temporary manager concluded that bringing the facility back into substantial compliance within the timeframe mandated by regulatory bodies was not feasible due to a number of concerns, including the absence of critical staff.”
“Our priority now is acting safely and swiftly to relocate our residents to other homes, working closely with their families and loved ones,’’ the nursing home said in a statement.
DPH has been investigating the facility since a COVID outbreak that started in late July and has infected more than three dozen people and spread to William Backus Hospital.
Families of Three Rivers were told on a conference call Wednesday morning that the state was moving all of the patients out.
“We were told they were closing the facility and they weremovingpeopleas early as today,” said Karen Kingston, whose mother is a resident at Three Rivers.
Kingston said she has been trying to move her mothertoeither Bridebrook or Gladview nursing homes but these facilities have reluctant to take patients from Three Rivers because of the COVID-19 cases.
Sacks said that the plan will be to move less than 10 residents a day - starting with some of the COVID positive ones going to Riverside as soon as Thursday. Sacks said that will be a temporary assignment until they recover and then they will be moved to a nursing home of their choice.
“We’re not sure how long it will take to discharge everyone. There is no road map for this,” Sacks said.
DPH officials believe that there is adequate space available in surrounding long-term care facilities to move all 53 residents of Three Rivers.
The removal of patents -- and the state’s manage
mentofthesituation -- drew sharp criticism from the union representing dozens of ehalth care workers at Three Rivers, NewEngalnd Health Care Employees Union, District 1199.
“Residents will now suffer through transfers in the middle of a pandemic. Residents who were cared by these dedicated workers for years will have to find another place they can call “home” and establish new relationships with staff,” the statement said. “Today’s announcement also means that dozens of frontline workers who were brave enough to keep showing up daily at Three Rivers to care for residents may face job loss.”
Sacks was appointed a week ago as temporary manager of the Three Rivers as part of a compliance agreement between the health department, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the owners, JACC Healthcare.
On Monday, DPH released a 71-page report on its investigation into Three Rivers, which started when the outbreak of coronavirus cases occurred in mid-August. There have been 22 residents who have tested positive for COVID -19, six staff membersanduptofour deaths.
Among the new report’s conclusions are that Three Rivers failed to properly test all of its employees as mandated by Gov. Lamont’s executive orders. A review of testing records showed that of the nursing homes’ 55 employees, 16, or 29 percent, had missed weekly testing for COVID 19, the report says.
The report includes new detail on how specific cases were handled, noting that at least three patients were sent to the emergency room at William Backus Hospital without written documentation that the residents had COVID-19.
The new report also focuses on the issue of how short-staffed Three Rivers has been. Eighteen of the 21 shifts that DPH reviewed betweenAugust28-September 3 showedthat one nurse worked alone in the A Wing, where patients with suspected COVID-19 were under observation.
An earlier report identified other problems, including the actions of a supervising nurse whocame to work a double shift on July 27 after going on vacation in Rhode Island. She told several of her fellow employees that she wasn’t feeling well and that at least two members of her family had gotten COVID-19 tests, the report said.
Three days later the nurse tested positive as well. Several employees told DPH that the woman didn’t wear a mask as she worked the double shift on July 27. DPH hasn’t identified the supervising nurse, but the Courant has learned her nameisMaryCiezynski, who was working as a parttime employee at Three Rivers. Among those infected was her mother, a patient at the facility who has since died, though not of COVID.
The infection spread beyond the nursing home. At least five residents were transferred from Three Rivers to Backus Hospital in Norwich since early August. Thehospital uncovered the first positive case from Three Rivers on Aug. 2, according to the DPH report.
One of those residents treated at the hospital is suspected of being responsible for an exposure at Backus, when they were placed in a regular hospital floor rather than the COVID-only floor because they originally tested negative for the virus. The patient only tested positive when they were preparing to discharge the patient, hospital officials said.
At least nine Backus employees contracted the virus. Hospital officials have said it spread because an employees wasn’t wearing the proper PPE.