New Commander at Troubled Vets Home

State officials have appointed a longtime administrator to take over the management of a troubled Chester County state veterans nursing home where some 50 patients have succumbed to the coronavirus pandemic.
Barbara Raymond, who was the commandant at the Pennsylvania Soldiers and Sailors Home in Erie is taking over as interim commandant at the 238-bed Southeastern Veterans Center in Spring City. She replaces Rohan Blackwood, who served in the post since 2015.
The shift comes as the death count continues to rise at the facility.
In its latest report from the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, the agency reported that 36 veterans were confirmed victims of Covid-19 with another 14 probable victims. A total of 114 patients have tested positive for the virus including those who have passed away.
In addition 52 staffers of the six facility system have tested positive for the vir

12 Covid Deaths in PA State Hospitals

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Twelve patients in Pennsylvania state hospitals have died from the Coronavirus, according to data posted by the state Department of Human Services.
The agency reported Tuesday that the deaths came from a total of 100 patients who contracted Covid-19 in the six facilities run by the agency.
Currently, according to the report nine patients are currently suffering from the virus.
The agency has recently declined to specify at which facilities the cases occurred, but prior to the recent policy change the majority of the cases were listed at Norristown State Hospital.
Other facilities under the Human Services control are Clarks Summit State Hospital, Danville State Hospital, Torrance State Hospital, Warren State Hospital, Wernersville State Hospital and South Mountain Restoration Center.
Even more Covid-19 deaths have been reported in Pennsylvania's veterans nursing homes. A total of 50 recent patient deaths were either confirmed or probable coronavirus cases.
Most, if not all of those deaths were at the Southeastern Veterans Center in Chester County. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs acknowledged Tuesday that the commandant at the 238-bed facility had been replaced by an acting commandant.
Thirty-six of the deaths were confirmed Covid deaths while 14 were classified as probable Covid-19 deaths.
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Philly Nursing Home Has 108 Covid Cases

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The city owned Philadelphia Nursing Home has 108 patients who have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and fewer than five of them have died, according to data made public by the Pennsylvania Health Department.
City health officials had previously refused to disclose data on Covid-19 case counts at the 402-bed facility, but state officials this week decided to disclose detailed statewide data on nursing home and personal care facilities.
At the Philadelphia Nursing Home a total of 108 patients were diagnosed with the Coronavirus, according to the state report.
The Philadelphia home was not the only publicly owned facility to show up on the list. The John J. Kane Regional Center in Center Glen Hazel had 104 patients diagnosed with Covids-19, along with 30 employees. Thirty-one of the patients died from the virus.
The Delaware Valley Veterans Center in Philadelphia, which is run by the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, reported nine patients were diagnosed with Covid-19.
The new state data actually conflicts with data recently issued by the state veterans agency. While the state agency has reported 49 Covid-19 deaths at the Southeastern Veterans Center, the state Health Department list includes only 35 deaths at the Chester County facility.
The state agency reported that 35 deaths were confirmed Covid-19 deaths while an additional 14 were presumed to have died from the virus.
The nursing home with the highest number of deaths in the state was the Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Beaver County where 76 virus deaths were recorded. Forty virus deaths were reported at the Broomhall Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Philadelphia's suburbs.
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PA Vet Covid Deaths Explode

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Deaths from the coronavirus in Pennsylvania's nursing homes for veterans have jumped yet again with some 49 victims either diagnosed or presumed to have died from Covoid-19.
The new total from the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs shows deaths have continued to multiply since they were first reported at nine a month ago.
Though the state report does not state at which facility the deaths occurred, most if not all were at the Southeastern Veterans Center in Chester County. The state operates five other veterans homes stretching from Scranton to Pittsburgh.
In a posting on its web site the agency appeared to acknowledge that the Chester County was a hotspot.
"The SEVC is located in Spring City, Chester County. Additionally, the majority of the SEVC staff live in a three-county area: Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties. These three counties are collectively considered to be a hotspot area given that they account for 19% of all COVID-19 cases and 23% of COVID-19 deaths throughout the commonwealth. This hotspot also accounts for 28% of all long-term care resident deaths throughout Pennsylvania," the posting states.
According to its latest update 35 of the 49 deaths were confirmed Covid-19 cases while 14 were listed as "probable."
The agency also reported that a total of 107 patients have tested positive for the virus while 51 staff have tested positive but 47 have returned to work.

11 Die In PA State Hospitals from Covid-19

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Eleven patients in Pennsylvania state hospitals have died from the coronavirus, according to data provided by the state Department of Human Services.
The deaths were among some 99 residents at seven facilities overseen by the state human services agency who were diagnosed with the Covid-19 virus.
Though Pennsylvania officials originally provided facility specific data on pandemic victims, it shifted courses earlier this month and began issuing data only on a cumulative basis. It ceased any reporting on infected employees.
Before the agency stopped issuing site specific data, they did report that 22 patients at Norristown State Hospital had tested positive for the virus along with 67 hospital employees.
The seven facilties covered by the data are Clark Summit State Hospital, Danville State Hospital, Norristown State Hospital, Torrance State Hospital, Warren State Hospital, Wernersville State Hospital and the South Mountain Restoration Center.
The total census at the seven facilities is 1,447, according to the report and currently there are 43 patients have tested positive.
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PA Vets Home Death Toll 34

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The death toll in the Pennsylvania veterans nursing homes from confirmed or probable coronavirus has jumped to 34 cases, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
Joan Nissley, the spokeswoman, said 23 confirmed cases of coronavirus caused the death of 23 veterans and was the probable cause of 11 more. She declined to specify in which of the six veterans nursing homes the deaths occurred.
However, previous reports from county coroners has shown well over half of the deaths occurred at the Southeastern Veterans Center, a 323-bed facility in Spring City Chester County.
A contingent of National Guard members have been providing assistance to staff at the nursing home.
Nissley said that 45 staff at the six facilities also tested positive for the Covid-19 virus and 18 of them have already returned to work.
She said a total of 96 residents of the facilities tested positive for the virus including the 34 who died.
In addition to the Chester County facility, state veterans nursing homes are located in Erie, Pittsburgh, Scranton and Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania is not the only state to report multiple Covid-19 deaths in state run veterans nursing homes.
More than 70 deaths have been reported in a Massachusetts facility and multiple deaths have been reported at facilities in New York, New Jersey, Washington and Alabama. Several agencies are now investigating the conditions at the soldiers home in Holyoke, Mass. where the 70 deaths were reported.
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Pa. Health Inspections on Hold

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Most regular inspections of hospitals, nursing homes and other licensed health facilities have been put on hold in the state of Pennsylvania even as the number of victims of the coronavirus has continued to grow.
Acting under a disaster declaration from Gov. Thomas Wolf and a series of directives from federal agencies, the state Health Department has put on hold license renewal inspections usually conducted by a crew of more than 100 state surveyors.
That action comes at the same time as families and friends of patients in Pennsylvania health facilities have been barred from even entering the facilities where their loved ones are confined.
A review of state reports on state surveyors visits to hospitals and nursing homes show they are checking to determine if the faciities are following the multiple directives and guidances from state and federal regulators on the handling of coronavirus issues.
"The facility was in compliance with the current Pennsylvania Department of Health, CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines as they pertain to Covid-19," several recent reports state.
Facilities found in compliance include UPMC East, UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, Indiana Regional Medical Center, Excela Health Westmoreland, UPMC Hanover and Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
According to state Health Department spokesman Nate Wardle, the new reviews of Covid-19 compliance began on March 18. And regular renewal inspections of state licensed health facilities will remain on hold as long as the disaster declaration remains in effect.
"All facility or agency licenses that have expired from March 6 through the duration of the disaster emergency proclamation will be extended as needed for 90 days," according to the department.
In one directive to health providers, the state Health Department made it clear that compliance with the new directives trumps existing state laws and regulations.
"All statutory and regulatory provisions that would impose an impediment to implementing this guidance are suspended," the directive states.
A review of Health Department Covid-19 directives shows that not only are inspections on hold, but a host of other longtime requirements, such as prior approval for any expansions, have been set aside.
As for acting on complaints, the agency has stated that only cases in which a patient is at risk of serious harm or death, will an immediate inspection take place and even that may not trigger an actual onsite visit.
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Bucks Hospital Failed to Report Serious Event

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Pennsylvania health officials have cited a Bucks County hospital for failing to report a serious event in which a patient suffered a serious pressure ulcer.
Acting on an unannounced complaint surveyors from the state Health Department found that St. Mary's Medical Center in Langhorne failed to report the June incident as required under the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error law.
In addition a patient had to be lowered to the floor while being transported to the radiology department. According to the report the patient was not accompanied by a nurse.
"It was determined the facility failed to ensure patient safety during transport to an ancillary department," the report states.
The hospital, which has 371 beds, filed a plan of correction in which it promised to re-educate staff on the reporting requirements and to have its patient safety committee review such incidents.
The March 12 report also cites the hospital for failure to set time limits in its bylaws for consultations by specialists to be performed. The report details the delay in one patient getting a needed neurology consult.
Asked to comment on the report hospital spokeswoman Ann D'Antonio said federal law barred her from discussing details of any individual patient's treatment or confirming the details of patient visits.
"At St. Mary Medical Center the safety and comfort of our patients/participants is our top priority, and we maintain strict procedures to promote a positive, healing environment," she wrote in an email.
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TN Data Shows Elderly Hardest Hit By Virus

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Newly released data by Tennessee health officials show the elderly, particularly those in group settings, are the hardest hit in the deadly ongoing pandemic.
The data show 669 residents in nursing homes, assisted living and other group elderly settings have been diagnosed with the Covid-19 virus and 60 of them have died.
That parallels data from other states, including Massachusetts, where the elderly in group settings, such as nursing homes and assisted living account for the largest segment of pandemic victims.
In Philadelphia health officials reported that 53 percent or 373 of the Covid-19 deaths were elderly residents in long term care facilities
The Tennessee records show at one nursing home alone, the Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing,162 patients were infected and 23 died.
In Massachusetts 71 residents at a nursing home for veterans in Holyoke have died.
In Tennessee a nursing home once run by the Nashville Metro government had 30 patients infected with the coronavirus, three of them died.
Another Tennessee facility in Putnam County run by the same company running the Nashville facility, Signature Healthcare, had 51 infected patients and five deaths.
In the assisted living category, Elmcroft of Lebanon, 32 patients were infected and three died.
Lifecare of Athens, according to the Tennessee data, had 93 patients diagnosed with the coronavirus and one died.
Another Lifecare facility located in suburban Seattle, Wash. was the first nursing home where the pandemic became public. Some 37 patients at Lifecare of Kirkland died and the facility is now facing some $611,325 in federal fines and penalties.
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