Washington Township nursing home sees outbreak of covid-19

A surge in covid-19 cases at a Washington Township nursing home prompted the state’s Regional Response Health Collaborative program to visit the facility over the weekend.

Quality Life Services, formerly known as West Haven Manor, recorded about 30 infections involving residents and 10 involving staffers in the past three days, Chief Operating Officer Paul McGuire said. A physician from the National Guard, via the RRHC, visited the facility over the weekend.

McGuire said as soon as a resident or staff member tests positive, universal testing occurs across the entire center. He was not able to confirm whether the first positive case of the outbreak was a resident or staff member.

The facility moved into a “yellow” phase, prompting heightened safety protocols such as requiring N-95 masks and gowns to be worn in all rooms. Additionally, the facility established a “red” zone to isolate covid-positive residents.

There have been no deaths as a result of the outbreak, McGuire said, and it seems the majority of those who are covid-positive are asymptomatic.

“We just try to contain it as best we can,” McGuire said.

McGuire said the cases are the first outbreak the facility has experienced, but Quality Life has learned from earlier outbreaks at other nursing homes it runs across the region. Facilities in Buffalo Township, Chicora and Grove City also have high active case levels at the moment, according to Quality Life’s online covid-19 tracking tool.

McGuire said the National Guard physician who visited also did an assessment of the building, offering advice for isolated improvements such as adding a few more hand-sanitizing stations.

RRHC is a statewide initiative designed to support long-term care facilities preparing for or facing outbreaks of covid-19. In Southwestern Pennsylvania, a regional team led by UPMC and Allegheny Health Network serves facilities in 11 counties. The program uses resources such as the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, the National Guard and health care staffing agencies to address facility needs.

While McGuire said Quality Life’s Washington Township location is well-stocked with personal protective equipment and other necessary supplies, he expects the RRHC program will be most critical when it comes to staffing.

“What we’re learning is, it’s going to hit the staff, and when it hits the staff, your staffing is depleted,” he said. “That’s where (RRHC) comes in to kind of give the staff that 10 days to be sick and get better and come back. They fill in for those situations.”

Quality Life in Washington Township is just the latest long-term care facility to experience covid-19 outbreaks — something health experts have predicted as inevitable as another wave of the virus hits the region. Amid spiking covid-19 cases in communities statewide, Westmoreland Manor and the Kane Center in Scott were among the region’s facilities to experience outbreaks in the past few weeks. The facilities have recorded 129 cases and 131 cases, respectively.

McGuire, like most facility operators and health experts, attributes the outbreak to community spread outside the facility.

“That’s the only thing we can think of,” he said. “We can’t keep (employees) in a bubble, if you know what I mean.”

“We’re constantly monitoring for signs and symptoms, and once somebody has a sign or symptom, we do the immediate testing and we move to the appropriate level in the building — red, yellow, green,” McGuire added. “And we’re continuing to monitor employees coming to work … continuing to provide good infection control practices. It’s a cycle that needs to run through.”

McGuire is confident the staff at Quality Life will get the virus under control through its mitigation strategies — though it may take some time to get the number of active cases back down to zero.

“It’s going to be a long couple weeks, but we are going to get through it,” he said.