Three More PA Vets Have Covid-19

Three more patients in Pennsylvania nursing homes for veterans have tested positive for the coronavirus but the death toll in the six home system remains at 54.
According to the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs the number of infected patients jumped from 132 late last week to 135 today.
Veterans homes in Philadelphia and suburban Chester County have been the hardest hit. Forty two patients at the Southeastern Veterans Center in Spring City have died from Covid-19. Twelve patients at the the Delaware Valley Veterans Center in Philadelphia have died.
Of the 54 deaths, 40 were confirmed cases of Covid-19, while 14 were classified as probable.
The department also reported that 65 employees at the six facilities have tested positive for the virus. Forty seven of those infected employees worked at the Southeastern Veterans Center.
State run veterans homes in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts have also reported multiple coronavirus deaths. At one New York home on Long Island nearly 60 deaths have been reported.
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Covid Deaths Mount in PA Facilities

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Deaths from the coronavirus in facilities licensed or run by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) have topped 100 and show no signs of slowing down.
Data compiled by the agency show the deaths have occurred in facilities ranging from community based residential homes for the intellectually disabled to substance abuse centers.
Ten covid deaths have also come in the state mental hospital in Norristown among 81 patients who tested positive.
With the exception of state mental hospitals, state Human Services officials, citing privacy concerns, have declined to name the specific entities where the deaths occurred. Instead they have provided updated figures by county.
"To protect the confidentiality of personal health information and the privacy of individuals, DHS is reporting this data by county rather than by program," the agency web site states.
"Some programs," the web site continues, "serve fewer than five individuals, and reporting information at this level potentially violates the department's obligation to protect individual privacy and personal health information."
For instance in the community based facilities for the intellectually disabled category, 64 covid deaths were recorded statewide while 18 of those deaths were in Philadelphia.
In Delaware county 16 deaths were reported out of 86 residents who were infected. In addition 117 staff members at Delaware county community based centers tested positive for covid-19.
In intermediate care facilities licensed by the state, deaths statewide were listed as "less than 28," while 227 staff members tested positive. In Philadelphia 125 patients were infected and nine died.
In licensed substance abuse treatment centers a total of 91 patients tested positive while five of those patients died. The state reported that 141 staffers at the treatment centers tested positive.
The DHS data is separate from coronavirus data compiled by the state Health Department on deaths and covid infections in licensed nursing homes. The latest total of nursing home deaths is 4,528.
Nor does the DHS data include covid deaths in Pennsylvania homes for veterans where 54 deaths have been recorded.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

54 PA Veterans Died from Covid-19

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Some 54 veterans living in state run nursing homes in Pennsylvania have died with confirmed or probable diagnoses of the coronavirus, according to officials of the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
Twelve of the deaths were at the Delaware Valley Veterans Center in Philadelphia while 42 died at the Southeastern Veterans Center in Spring City, in Philadelphia's suburbs.
Data provided by the Pennsylvania Health Department shows that an additional eight veterans died in personal care rooms at the Spring City facility. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs said those deaths were already included in the agency count.
The disclosure comes as veteran deaths have been reported in other states providing nursing home care to veterans. In a highly critical report issued Wednesday, officials of a Massachusetts veterans home in Holyoke were charged with substantial errors in the treatment of veterans infected with Covid-19.
Seventy-five patients at the facility died from the coronavirus.
At the Spring City, PA facility the administrator was recently placed on leave. Another longtime administrator was brought in as a temporary replacement.
According to the state agency 28 of the Southeastern deaths were confirmed cases of coronavirus while 14 were classified as probable coronavirus. A total of 101 residents tested positive for the virus.
At the Philadelphia facility 12 deaths were confirmed as coronavirus. Four were classified as probable. A total of 31 patients tested positive for coronavirus.
State run nursing homes for veterans in several other states including New Jersey and Alabama have also reported multiple coronavirus deaths over the past two months.

Reading Hospital Denied Transplant Certification

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A federal agency has denied Reading Hospital and Tower Health's request for certification of an adult kidney and and adult liver transplant programs.
The denial came in a three-page letter from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services which stated that the two programs "did not meet the requirements for participation in the Medicare Organ Transplant program for Adult Kidney and Adult Liver only."
The letter from CMS Manager Roxanne Rocco also states that the hospital does not meet the requirement for consideration due "mitigating factors."
Tower Health officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The letter cites a March visit to the facility in which surveyors found 17-pages of deficiencies in the two programs.
The federal denial came even as Tower Health, which owns Reading Hospital, had embarked on a extensive advertising campaign touting its transplant program. The ads cited Tower's takeover of the transplant program at the shuttered Hahnemann Hospital.
The Tower Health web site refers to the programs as "the nationally recognized kidney and liver transplant programs."
The deficiencies cited in the March inspection report cites the fact that the hospital hadn't performed a single transplant despite a requirement that applicants perform at least three transplants in the 12 month period preceeding the application.
Other deficiencies include the failure to remove unqualified patients from a transplant waiting list.
Still other failures include failure to maintain medical records of patients "transferred from a discontinued program" and failure to establish a quality assurance program.
Tower did recently announce that an initial adult kidney transplant had been successfully performed.

Ronzio Sentencing Delayed Again

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The sentencing for the prosecution's star witness in the criminal case stemming from the deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak has been delayed yet again and won't take place until nearly six years after the original indictments.
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns, sitting in Boston, Mass., today set a Nov. 3 sentencing date for Robert Ronzio, the former sales director for the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for the outbreak.
Ronzio, who entered a guilty plea to a single count of conspiring to defraud the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, appeared in multiple trials of his former NECC co-workers. Those included the trials of Barry J. Cadden, NECC's former president and part owner, and Glenn Chin, a former NECC supervising pharmacist.
Chin and Cadden were among 14 persons connected to NECC and its sales arm who were indicted in December of 2014 following a two year probe of the outbreak.
Chin and Cadden are now serving federal prison sentences following their conviction on racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud charges. Cadden got a nine year sentence, while Chin was given an eight year sentence.
Ronzio's sentencing had been set for July 27. Prior to that an April 22 sentencing date had been set.
At the prior trials Ronzio testified at length about NECC's operations and how they led to the production of contaminated steroids that ultimately killed dozens of unsuspecting patients.
Cadden and Chin, meanwhile, are facing second degree murder charges in Michigan, where many of the outbreak victims resided. A pre-trial hearing is set for June 24 at 8:30 a.m. before Livingston County District Court Judge Shauna Murphy.
She is set to rule whether state prosecutors have presented sufficient evidence for the murder charges to be presented to a jury.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

Coatesville VA Cited for Care Lapses

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Patients in a Veterans Administration facility in Coatesville, PA suffered serious falls and failed to get proper medication or pain assessments, according to a 35-page report from the VA Inspector General.
The report issued this week found the lapses in a three unit community living center, which includes long term patients and a locked dementia unit.
The critical auditors report was based on two 2019 visits to the 126-bed facility following complaints that improper nursing care was the cause of multiple deficiencies. The auditors said they were unable to confirm that poor nursing care resulted in harm to patients, but they did find multiple lapses in a review of dozens of patient records.
The cases reviewed include a veteran in his 70s who died not long after suffering a fall and another patient who died after falling down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair.
The report states that a review of records showed that in 32 of 75 records there was no records of a required post-fall assessment.
Among the deficiencies cited was the failure by staffers to document the condition of patients before and after medication was administered as ordered by a physician.
"This increases the risk for poor patient outcomes including unnecessary side effects," the report states.
Other records showed a failure to record pain assessments, thus risking over or under medication.
The review, which was initially limited to a dozen patient records, was ultimately expanded to include eight more.
Also cited was the inaccessibility of patient call buttons and an allegation that the failure by staffers to respond to call buttons resulted in a fall by a patient who needed to go to the bathroom. Auditors found that six of 14 call bells were in fact inaccessible.
The auditors also found that equipment used to safely lift patients in or out of bed was inoperable.
In 32 of 33 records reviewed on patients who needed to be turned or toileted there was no documentation that those services had been provided.