COVID-19 kills 16 at Cincinnati nursing home
Sixteen people at a nursing home in Cincinnati have died of COVID-19 during an outbreak that infected 75 residents, according to state health documents.
More than two dozen employees also tested positive for the virus.
The number of deaths at Mercy Franciscan at West Park is the most known at a nursing home in southwestern Ohio since the pandemic started in March.
It wasn’t immediately known when the outbreak occurred. The information was included in an infection-control report dated June 18.
“(A) review of facility documents revealed the facility had an outbreak of COVID-19 with 75 total residents testing positive, 16 resident deaths, 26 facility and four agency staff testing positive,” the report stated.
Mercy Franciscan Executive Director Rachel Wirth declined to comment on Tuesday. An official with Bon Secours Mercy Health, the Cincinnati-based health care system that operates the nursing home, released a written statement to The Enquirer.
“Mercy Health confirms we have residents who have tested positive for and who have died from COVID-19 at West Park Senior Living,” said Nanette Bentley, spokeswoman for Bon Secours Mercy Health. “We follow guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Ohio Department of Health to minimize exposure to other residents and associates and have also tested every resident and associate frequently.”
The state inspection report detailed lapses in infection-control procedures at Mercy Franciscan.
A nursing assistant was observed touching a bedside table, handling bed linens and assisting a resident who had tested positive for the coronavirus without using gloves, according to the report.
“The facility failed to implement appropriate infection-control practices to potentially prevent the spread of COVID infections,” the report read.
Other care providers and housekeeping employees — including the nursing administrator and the director of nursing — were observed without protective gowns in hallways where residents had tested positive for the virus, the report said.
The nursing home was immediately forced to enact changes.
In a July 20 follow-up inspection, the facility was deemed in compliance, according to state health records.
In Hamilton County, 129 people have died of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities since April 15, according to the most recent data provided by the Ohio Department of Health. The state does not provide a breakdown of deaths by facility.
For this report, The Enquirer reviewed individual nursing-home inspection reports filed after the pandemic surfaced in Ohio in March.
More than half of Ohio’s COVID-19 deaths, 1,966, have occurred in longterm care facilities, according the state’s most recent data.
In Licking County, the county health department recently announced a coronavirus outbreak of nearly 100 active cases at Newark Care and Rehabilitation. The facility has had 19 reported deaths.