Coronavirus-only nursing home plan hits snags
Connecticut’s ambitious plan to move coronavirusinfected nursing home patients to designated homes for the sick is underway amid resistance from at least three nursing homes that will not comply.
“The plan to designate a certain number of nursing homes for patients who test positive for COVID-19 will save lives,” Matthew Barrett CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities and Connecticut Center for Assisted Living. “Regrettably, the published potential Covid-19 standalone nursing homes sites appear to have been prematurely announced in error.”
Evergreen Health Care Center in Stafford Springs, where three residents have reportedly died from the disease, took itself out of consideration as a coronavirus-only site after the Stafford town Board of Selectmen objected in a statement that “a move of this nature will have an enormous negative effect on many of the residents.”
Two other nursing homes in Farmington and Bloomfield
run by iCare Health Network also backed out, saying they never agreed to become coronavirus-only sites.
“What we said was if we ever get to the point where we have five or 10 or 15 cases, we will be a de-facto coronavirus unit anyway,” said David Skoczulek, a spokesperson for iCare, which runs 11 nursing homes in Connecticut.
“That’s a big difference from emptying out a nursing care center and dividing people up – it’s a massive undertaking that’s very disruptive.”
The state’s top health official said the nursing homes had the right to back out of the plan, and that several other nursing homes had already contacted the state about taking their place.
“It is fast and it is furious in regards to all of us trying to work to address the needs of this most-vulnerable population,” said Renee Coleman-Mitchell, Connecticut’s public health commissioner. “What we said yesterday could be very different as of today in regards to who’s working with us to address those need.”
For now, however, Greenwich Woods Rehabilitation and Health Center in Greenwich and Sharon Health Care Center in Sharon are the state’s two coronavirusonly sites.
Officials at both facilities on Thursday would only say that talks are continuing.
“The discussions are continuing but there is not a finalized plan,” said Tammy Campanelli, vice president of operations for Greenwich Woods, which has 217 beds.
Under the state’s plan, five other facilities including the old Greenwich Civic Center and Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan are bringing idle beds back into service to treat nursing home patients with COVID-19.
The president of Silver Hill said the psychiatric hospital has a modern 30bed building available for the state to use immediately.
“We are members of this community and we stand ready to help the state with this unprecedented crisis in any way that we can,” said Dr. Andrew Gerber.
The plan is part of an initiative announced by Gov. Ned Lamont to separate the 150 nursing home residents in Connecticut who have tested positive for COVID-19 in either wings of existing nursing homes, or in coronavirus-only nursing homes.
The plan does not cover Connecticut’s hundreds of assisted care facilities such as Benchmark Senior Living’s Ridgefield Crossings in Ridgefield, where nine former residents have died from coronavirus.
Ridgefield Crossings said it has already sent some of its residents who tested negative for the virus to a hotel.
To date, 42 of the state’s 216 nursing homes have had at least one confirmed case of COVID-19. Of 150 nursing home residents with COVID-19, 64 were hospitalized and 15 have died, according to the state health department.
Among nursing homes with at least one coronavirus case is Glen Hill Center in Danbury, where a 92year-old World War II veteran died over the weekend.
The governor’s move comes at a time when Connecticut is bracing for the worst – a surge of coronavirus cases expected to hit Fairfield County before Easter.
Worldwide, the virus had infected 900,000 by the end of business on Thursday, and killed 45,000. In the United States, which at 213,000 has more cases than any other country, the coronavirus has claimed 4,500 lives.
In Connecticut, there were 3,800 cases late Thursday afternoon and 112 deaths.
Barrett said it was important to act fast to protect the state’s vulnerable senior population.
“Implementing the plan as soon as possible can make a difference in slowing the spread in the 23,000 general nursing home population and will provide some relief to hospitals during the expected surge,” Barrett said.