August 21, 2020By Emily Russell
A nursing home in Essex County (click here) reported 26 cases of COVID-19 and three deaths this week.
It’s one the largest outbreaks in the North Country since the start of the pandemic. The nursing home in Elizabethtown is under the same ownership of a senior center in Glens Falls where 20 residents died due to COVID earlier this year.
The Essex Center nursing home in Elizabethtown is owned by Centers Health Care, which operates facilities across the state. This spring, 75 residents at one of its nursing homes in Glens Falls contracted COVID, 20 of them died.
“What happened at Glens Falls Center cuts right to the heart of us and our staff," said Jeff Jacomowitz, a spokesperson for Centers Health Care. “We’re hoping it doesn’t happen at Essex Center and we’re doing everything possible we can with the hopes that it does not happen.”...
... Jacomowitz did confirm that the facility's staff do regularly travel between other nursing homes in the Centers Health Care's network.
The response to COVID-19 outbreaks must meet with the same brevity as any major outbreak. The spread must be contained and contact tracing a mandate.
It is concerning that this nursing home operator has several nursing homes in the state of New York. The management rotates their employees between all the nursing homes to reduce their costs. During the time of COVID-19 that is not a "best practices" policy. Every nursing home must maintain a consistent staff that is found to be free of the virus. When visitors are allowed in, it has to be with the understanding they are not running a fever and were not exposed to anyone known to have the virus.
The problem is that if a visitor or staff member brings the virus to a nursing home and staff are rotating throughout the company's multiple nursing homes, it is guaranteed there will be wider spread of the virus.
SARS-CoV-2 is not under control. To allow any breach in the system to prevent illness and death is very serious. I believe the practice of rotating staff is an ineffective method to contain the spread of the virus.
August 20, 2020
By Kelly O'Brien
The Essex Center in Elizabethtown saw it’s first COVID-related death this week, the first in the county. And two additional deaths associated with the virus were announced Thursday evening. One was at the hospital, another patient had been discharged from the Essex Center to their home in Clinton County. So far, 24 residents tested positive for the virus.
I went to the facility Thursday looking for an update on how this happened. I was unable to get that question answered but the health department said it's something they are working to figure out.
I was able to speak to family members with loved ones inside. They are furious over how this situation was handled....
What else is of concern to contain the virus is much needed funding to bring supplies and adequate staff levels to optimal numbers. Over abundance of supplies is not wasteful, it is however a way of being sure that SUPPLIES are available BEFORE there is a shortage developing.
Additionally, adequate staff that has training to work in nursing home environments under these stringent standards is very important. It is very difficult to keep staff at optimal levels for containment if their supplies are always in question. They have families, too, and do not want to bring home a virus inadvertently because there wasn't enough PPE.
For nursing home staffers overtime is not an option. Stress levels must reduced and maintained at those reduced levels.
Aug 04, 2020
By Emily Russell
“Without federal assistance local leaders will be forced to choose between raising taxes on families who cannot afford it or cut jobs and services that New Yorkers desperately need now more than ever”
The New York Association of Counties looked at projected revenue losses across the state. Nearly every county in the North Country is facing revenue shortfalls between $20 and $30 million in the next two years....
Every federal legislator should be scrambling to solve budget shortfalls with the states because the virus is still not eliminated from society and the needs for PPE and qualified staff is as important today as in March.
This is only one county in one state. New York has done a remarkable job to minimize the COVID-19 cases per day. These outbreaks must be contained and contact tracing carried out, but, more than that adequate funding, plenty of PPE and nursing home management that FULLY ADDRESSES the potential spread within their facilities are all vital parts for eradicating the virus.
Federal legislators must take into account the states have to have the funding to close their budget shortfalls to contain and eradicate the virus. That funding needs to be passed now, not in a few months when the virus spread has gotten worse due to budgetary constraints.
