Coronavirus cluster at troubled Wichita-area nursing home; 4 confirmed cases, 1 death
One person has died and several are being hospitalized in connection with a coronavirus cluster at a Clearwater nursing home, the Sedgwick County manager has announced.
“There are four cases confirmed and one death confirmed,” said County Manager Tom Stolz. “Our Health Department is actively working with them right now to try to mitigate this.”
The cluster is in the Clearwater Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility is at 620 Wood Ave.
Residents of the facility who showed symptoms of the disease were moved to a hospital, Stoltz said.
The rest will stay put unless they start to show symptoms. The facility is cooperating with the county and undergoing a complete disinfection process, Stolz said.
“We clearly will monitor this and as people become symptomatic, we’ll move them, but there’s no clear good solution on emptying that facility,” he said.
Stolz added that the county has studied the responses of other agencies that have experienced COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes.
“The other models out there seem to indicate to isolate as you can on the premises and work your way through it, using good sanitation methods and cleaning,” he said. “That’s the strategy we’re going with down there at this time.”
In a news release, the county quoted the facility owner, Willie Novotny: “I am deeply saddened by the loss of one of our residents and offer my condolences to his/her friends and family. We are continuing our efforts to keep all residents and staff safe.”
The fatality is the third confirmed death from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, the county release said.
Hygiene concerns at nursing home
Months before the coronavirus swept through a Wichita-area nursing home, the facility was cited for hygiene problems and staffing shortages that made it hard for residents to get the kind of care they needed.
Clearwater Nursing and Rehabilitation Center has a one-out-of-five star rating on the Medicare website that ranks long-term care facilities based on past inspections, citations and complaints.
In October, the facility was cited 28 times for health-related issues, nearly four times the state average. In January, investigators returned to the facility to follow-up on complaints made against the facility.
“Things are terrible,” one resident complained, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspection report on Jan. 27.
“Staffing is a huge problem. Baths were going fine up until a couple of months ago and now they’re given only if you beg for one.”
“I just don’t see how things could get any worse,” another said. “Staffing is so bad. Weekends are bare bones staff. We don’t get any care at all on weekends. I have complained and complained and complained about it and nothing ever changes.”
Staff shortages led the facility to use a lot of temporary workers hired by an agency that would send workers to the nursing home.
Facility owner Novotny said the concerns raised in the Medicare inspection had nothing to do with the coronavirus outbreak at his facility and that the staffing issues have since been addressed. He would not say how many staffers were at his facility over the weekend.
“To be honest, that information that’s on the Medicare site is completely inaccurate,” Novotny said. “That was a report taken from staff that the surveyors just put in as a direct quote. ... It’s just simply inaccurate.”
Novotny said nursing homes have been “left to fend for themselves” during the coronavirus pandemic. He said the problem in Kansas is exacerbated by a waiting period on Medicare reimbursement from the state. He said there’s a several-month lag time that’s hitting nursing homes especially hard right now.
“All that we’re getting is additional regulations that we’re supposed to follow from the state and federal government,” he said. “There’s no actual assistance coming.
“Operators are having to make payroll and pay bills without the state of Kansas paying for those services, and that’s something I’m absolutely disgusted about,” he said.
He also said nursing homes get a bad rap when it comes to health problems.
“When someone goes to the hospital because they’re sick or they get sick even at a hospital, if something happens to that person, we blame the disease,” he said. “If something happens at a nursing home, we assume that the nursing home did wrong. We blame the nursing home, and that’s not how things should work. We take care of people and our staff work really hard.”
Two residents dead; one tested positive
The outbreak at the Clearwater nursing home started Friday, when a resident began showing symptoms of COVID-19 and was sent to the hospital, Novotny said.
On Saturday, the test came back positive. That day, two additional nursing home residents “went into sudden respiratory distress,” he said.
“Staff responded, EMS was called, and both residents ended up passing away en route to the hospital,” he said.
After they died, both residents were tested for the coronavirus. One tested positive, the other didn’t, he said.
Novotny said it’s possible that the test on one of the residents was a false negative.
Or it was “someone who passed away from something else, a heart attack or something. I don’t have that information yet,” he said.
An additional five residents from the Clearwater nursing home had been sent to the hospital as of Tuesday, he said, “however, none of those were in any kind of emergency situation.”
It’s unclear at this time how the virus was introduced at the Clearwater nursing home.
“My best guess is sometimes people can have this and they’re asymptomatic, and that could potentially be a staff member,” he said.
“And unless they’re testing everybody, we just don’t know,” he said. “There wasn’t really any sign of any of this that we could have acted on earlier.”
‘Keep praying,’ Clearwater mayor says
Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell, who represents Clearwater, posted a video on Facebook outlining the situation.
“My heart breaks for our friends in Clearwater,” he said. “We anticipate that the numbers will rise, both of those infected with the virus and in deaths. I want everyone to know that the Sedgwick County Health Department is working hand-in-hand with the nursing home. They’re working hand-in-hand with KDHE.”
O’Donnell, who also sits as a member of the county Board of Health, urged all county residents to follow the stay-at-home orders currently in place statewide and to wash their hands frequently to avoid acquiring or spreading the contagious virus.
“We need to do everything we can to pray for and support these individuals that are infected and the family members of the individual who has passed away,” he said. “And also do what we can as a community to stop our spreading of that (disease).”
Clearwater Mayor Burt Ussery said these are the first confirmed cases in his city of just under 2,500 residents, 16 miles southwest of Wichita.
“It’s a concern anywhere it happens,” Ussery said of the coronavirus. ”The county and the facility will do what they can to contain this is the best they can. We are currently working with the Sedgwick County Health Department to mitigate the issues.”
Ussery said he wants the community to “keep praying for everybody involved.”
This is the fifth cluster identified in Sedgwick County. There have also been clusters at three churches and a business, the county said in a news release.
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 1:04 PM.
