Quabbin Valley Healthcare Assistant Administrator Michael Kachadoorian said early measures to combat COVID-19 when it arrived in March and stop the virus at the door paid off for the nursing home on Daniel Shays Highway in Athol last spring, but it hasn’t been so lucky this time around.
Area nursing homes are starting to see a rise in positive COVID-19 cases again, but so far there have been no deaths, according to administrators. Two of the four nursing homes in Franklin County and the North Quabbin area are seeing a fall surge, while the other two, which had a higher number of cases in the spring, haven’t had many or any yet this fall and they’d like to keep it that way, but said they understand COVID-19 is unpredictable.
Quabbin Valley Healthcare has eight residents who tested positive for COVID-19 and three staff members as of Tuesday.
“The staff are all at home isolating for the next 14 days, and the residents have been moved to our COVID-19 unit, where they can receive proper care while being isolated from others in the building,” Kachadoorian said. “We’re now testing weekly as required by the state Department of Public Health.”
He said the nursing home was testing bi-weekly when there were no cases, but now that there are, the state requires weekly testing until there are no positives. He said the facility is doing both rapid testing and the more conventional testing, and if someone knows they’ve been in contact with another who has COVID-19, they get a rapid test followed by the more conventional test.
“We’re following all the guidance,” he said. “For instance, the staff working on the COVID-19 unit only works on that unit. They enter and exit from outside and don’t come into other areas of the facility.”
He said the moment a resident tests positive, he or she is moved into the unit, while the moment a staff members tests positive, they are sent home for two weeks.
“We asked our staff how they wanted to handle things — we do briefings regularly — and they said they wanted to work two 12-hour shifts at a time to limit exposure to others,” he said. “We have a nurse and nurse’s aids, four staff members in the COVID-19 unit at a time.”
Kachadoorian said the nursing home has a contract with a nursing agency, so if more staff becomes ill, there will be backup.
“We chose to ask the National Guard to help with patient care,” he said. “They will be working with our team for a while to provide support, whether delivering meals, checking vitals, which we do every four hours, or whatever.”
The facility has passed all state inspections throughout the entire pandemic. Kachadoorian said that goes to show that no matter how many precautions you take, the virus can find a way.
“We’re doing all that we can to prevent any more spread,” he said. “We’ll keep testing until we break the 14-day cycle.”
Kachadoorian said he has no idea where it all started but the first case was discovered Sunday, Dec. 6.
“It’s hard to pinpoint, but we’re thinking it probably had something to do with the holiday — I think we’re all going to find that Thanksgiving was a super-spreader event,” he said. “We’ve stopped all visits again.”
He said in September the facility began allowing visits again, but not without precautions.
“We took people’s temperatures and asked them questions,” he said. “We would allow brief periods of visiting, but no contact — there were masks and social distancing and sanitizing and barriers between visitors and residents.”
Kachadoorian said residents are back to Zoom visits with their friends and family and some outdoor, through the window, visits are allowed but must be scheduled.
“I’ve been visiting the residents inside the COVID-19 unit and so far, thank goodness, everyone is stable,” he said.
Quabbin Valley Healthcare has 142 beds and had reported no positive cases until now with no COVID-19-related deaths so far.
Charlene Manor Extended Care on Colrain Road had several cases and deaths last spring, but on Tuesday reported that five staff members and 25 of its residents have tested positive for COVID-19.
Lisa Gaudet, vice president of business development and marketing for Berkshire Healthcare, the company that owns Charlene Manor, said the facility isn’t sure how it all started, but believes that it is consistent with community spread.
“We’re following all protocol and infection control, as we have been doing all along,” she said.
Gaudet said Charlene Manor has a unit in which all residents who test positive are moved to and quarantined.
“That’s also where people recover,” she said. “I’m not aware of any deaths at this point. We do worry, though, because we care for a frail and vulnerable population.”
She said it’s very early in the outbreak, so it’s not yet clear how it will go for each resident.
“Visits have been suspended,” she said. “We were testing every two weeks, but now we’re testing more often.”
Gaudet believes Thanksgiving was a “big contributor.” She said also because it’s colder outside, people are spending more time indoors, getting less fresh air, so there is more risk, especially among staff members.
“We’re thinking it came in either with a staff member or a visitor,” she said. “However it happened, this surge is more virulent than the first. Even people who are saying they did everything right and are mystified by how they became infected have tested positive.”
Gaudet said she doesn’t know whether that means there are different strains and some are worse than others, but it seems to be spreading more easily.
“The good news is that a vaccine is on the way,” she said. “Until then, we’ll keep everyone as safe as possible, separating the sick from the well, sanitizing, washing hands and wearing our PPE and social distancing and wearing masks, everything we’ve been doing.”
Gaudet said the nursing home has already signed on with CVS and Walgreens, which will administer the vaccine when it arrives.
Charlene Manor has 123 beds and until now had reported less than 30 positive cases since spring with a total of 13 deaths.
A spokesperson for Buckley HealthCare Center on Laurel Street in Greenfield said the nursing home is taking all precautions and so far does not have any cases. The facility was the first to report cases in the spring, with 17 positives in mid-March.
According to state reports, Buckley HealthCare has 120 beds, has had less than 30 positive cases since the pandemic began last spring and has 26 deaths to date.
Poet’s Seat Health Care Center on High Street has 63 beds and until now had reported less than 30 positive cases with 19 deaths since the spring.
Co-Owner and Administrator Michele Carney said one employee and one clinical health care provider (not an employee) were sent home this past week because they tested positive, but so far no residents have tested positive.
“The staff member will stay home for 10 days to isolate,” she said. “We’ll continue testing staff and residents once a week and we’ll follow all state and federal guidelines to keep everyone safe. It has been a long road and we just have to stay vigilant until this is behind us.”
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.