GREENFIELD — A nursing home with two-thirds of Hancock County’s COVID-19 deaths says it’s following practices emphasized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention amid the outbreak.
The Hancock County Health Department reported Thursday that a total of 55 residents of Greenfield Healthcare Center have had COVID-19 and that 18 of those residents have died from the disease.
Fred Stratmann, a spokesman for the CommuniCare Family of Companies, of which Greenfield Healthcare Center is a part, said two residents of the facility died on Monday, one died on Tuesday and one died on Wednesday.
The Indiana State Department of Health reported Thursday that Hancock County’s COVID-19 death toll had risen to 27, an addition of one from the day before. The fatality was a woman 80 or older who died on Wednesday, according to the state’s online COVID-19 dashboard.
Stratmann said Greenfield Healthcare Center’s first two COVID-19 deaths occurred on April 25. There have been at least three per week over the weeks that have followed.
He said on Wednesday that nine residents who have recovered from COVID-19 are moving out of an isolated COVID-19 unit at the facility.
“People are recovering,” Stratmann said.
That reduction is allowing the facility to condense from two COVID-19 units down to one, which he said as of Wednesday had 20 residents in it.
Dedicating space in nursing homes to monitor and care for residents with COVID-19 is part of guidance that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been updating throughout the pandemic.
Part of that guidance also calls for facilities to have at least one employee with training in infection prevention and control to provide on-site management of COVID-19 prevention and response activities.
Stratmann said nursing homes have been required to have employees trained in infection prevention and control since long before the pandemic, and that Greenfield Healthcare Center has been fulfilling that requirement.
The CDC also stresses the importance of health care personnel wearing personal protective equipment. Stratmann said Greenfield Healthcare Center health care personnel working with residents who have COVID-19 wear medical isolation gowns, face shields, gloves and N95 masks, which block at least 95% of small particles.
Greenfield Healthcare Center health care personnel who work with residents not known to have COVID-19 wear surgical masks, gloves and gowns, Stratmann said. He added residents do not wear personal protective equipment, however.
The CDC says residents of long-term care facilities should wear cloth face coverings, if tolerated, whenever they leave their rooms. Stratmann said Greenfield Healthcare Center hasn’t provided congregant dining since the beginning of March and instead has been delivering meals to residents’ rooms. He said services like physical, occupational and speech therapy are done one-on-one in residents’ rooms as well.
“We try and do activities like hallway bingo and things like that, so they can see each other and attempt to socialize, while maintaining social distancing,” Stratmann said.
Residents should be screened every day for COVID-19 symptoms and tested if they have symptoms, according to the CDC. Health care personnel should be screened at the start of their shifts and tested if they have symptoms as well. All residents and health care personnel should be tested if there is a new confirmed COVID-19 case.
Stratmann said Greenfield Healthcare Center screens residents daily and tests if symptoms arise; screens employees at the start of their shifts and tests if symptoms arise; and has done two rounds of whole-house testing.
A COVID-19 strike team with the Indiana State Department of Health visited Greenfield Healthcare Center at the beginning of the pandemic and performed the first five tests on residents in the facility, Stratmann said. Then the facility initiated its whole-house testing with the help of the Hancock County Health Department, he added.
The state department of health’s strike teams include a coordinator, nurse, infection control specialist and epidemiologist. Teams provide testing of residents and staff, training on personal protective equipment and infection control and help implement COVID-19 response plans.
The CDC also says to continue testing previously negative residents until testing identifies no new cases of COVID-19 among residents or health care personnel over at least 14 days since the most recent positive result. Stratmann said Greenfield Healthcare Center is doing that as well.
Greenfield Healthcare Center has been following the CDC guidelines of putting alcohol-based hand sanitizer in every resident room and making sure sinks are well stocked with soap and paper towels, Stratmann also said. He added that handrails, door handles and other high-touch areas are disinfected about three times a day.
Stratmann said Wednesday that two more Greenfield Healthcare Center employees have recovered from COVID-19, dropping the number of workers out due to the disease down to five.
No changes were reflected in the COVID-19 data for the seven other long-term care facilities in Hancock County Thursday. Woodland Terrace of New Palestine remained at two cases, one of which resulted in the death of a resident in March who also had other health conditions. Remaining at no cases or deaths were Greenfield-based Springhurst Health Campus, Golden LivingCenter-Brandywine, CrownPointe of Greenfield and Sugar Creek Nursing and Rehabilitation; and McCordsville-based Pleasant View Lodge and Traditions at Brookside.
The state department of health on Thursday also reported seven more COVID-19 cases for Hancock County, raising that total to 310. Total tests for which results have been received shot up more than 100, bringing the total to 2,969. The 117 new tests the state reported for the county were from April 3 to May 19, according to the online COVID-19 dashboard.
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COVID-19 data for residents of long-term care facilities in Hancock County as of May 21
- Greenfield Healthcare Center: 55 cases, 18 deaths
- Woodland Terrace of New Palestine: 2 cases, 1 death
- Springhurst Health Campus, Greenfield: 0 cases, 0 deaths
- Golden LivingCenter – Brandywine, Greenfield: 0 cases, 0 deaths
- Traditions at Brookside, McCordsville: 0 cases, 0 deaths
- CrownPointe of Greenfield: 0 cases, 0 deaths
- Sugar Creek Nursing and Rehabilitation, Greenfield: 0 cases, 0 deaths
- Pleasant View Lodge, McCordsville: 0 cases, 0 deaths
Source: Hancock County Health Department
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COVID-19 data as of 11:59 p.m. May 20
Hancock County
- 310 cases
- 27 deaths
- 2,969 tests (10.4% positive)
- 7 new cases on May 20
- 1 new death on May 20
- 117 new tests between April 3 and May 19
Indiana
- 29,936 cases
- 1,764 deaths
- 202,995 tests
- 676 new cases between May 2 and May 20
- 48 new deaths between May 2 and May 20
- 7,318 new tests between March 18 and May 20
Source: Indiana State Department of Health
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