National Guard helps to ‘ramp up’ CT nursing home inspections

Gov. Ned Lamont toured a FEMA medical field hospital for non-coronavirus patients in the Southern Connecticut State University Moore Field House in New Haven on April 1. The hospital was staged by members of the Connecticut National Guard's 1-102nd Infantry. Sources have said the National Guard’s medical units will be joining state health officials on inspections of nursing homes. less Gov. Ned Lamont toured a FEMA medical field hospital for non-coronavirus patients in the Southern Connecticut State University Moore Field House in New Haven on April 1. The hospital was staged by members of ... more Photo: Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 281 Caption Close National Guard helps to ‘ramp up’ CT nursing home inspections 1 / 281 Back to Gallery

National Guard medical personnel will accompany state Department of Public Health officials during inspections of nursing homes loaded with patients suffering from COVID-19.

About 40 members of the Connecticut National Guard and Army Reserves will act as “the eyes and ears” of the DPH during the inspections and also provide education to staff on the proper use of personal protective equipment, said Capt. David Pitlik, spokesman for the Guard.

“They will be able to ramp up inspections,” Pitlik said Monday. “We will be adding the manpower to do that.”

The National Guard medical staff, which will include a range of trained personnel including EMTs, nurses and medics, will speak to nursing home staff to gain a better understanding about what’s happening in the facilities, Pitlik said.

A limited number of employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from Atlanta will also visit some of the state’s 213 nursing homes, according to DPH spokesman Av Harris.

“The CDC as I understand it has deployed some of their folks to all states to help out recognizing that nursing homes are an area of significant risk in this pandemic,” Gov. Ned Lamont's Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe said.

The DPH has 40 staff members who have been conducting on-site inspections of nursing homes who will be joined by the National Guard members who have been trained to support the inspections, Geballe said.

“People who in their day jobs are EMTs or nurses, or in some cases sanitarians who are going to be complementing that work so that we can do even more detailed reviews and potentially more frequently,” Geballe said. “So we’ve got a lot of people pulling together to bring additional supports to our nursing homes and the staff on the front lines there.”

State officials began inspecting the facilities after the New England Health Care Workers Union, SEIU 1199, alleged that some home administrators are not providing workers with proper protective equipment such as masks, gloves, gowns and face shields.

Union members contended Friday that administrators are hoarding the equipment and only providing new masks and gowns when DPH officials are asking questions.

National Guard members will be a welcome addition to provide more oversight of the nursing home situation, according to Pedro Zayas, communications director for the union.

“The concern of the union and of the workers is to keep workers and patients safe,” Zayas said. “Any measure that will put more eyeballs in the buildings to make sure there is proper supply of PPE and proper usage that can also get information flowing to families of patients and workers, we are totally in favor of.”

Pitlik said Guard members will be able to determine during the inspections whether the issue is educating staff or that PPE isn’t being properly distributed.

“This is a great way of putting out feelers to find out what’s actually going on out there,” Pitlik said. “Is this facility getting its own PPE? Is it requesting it from the state because it can’t get it? Is it being handed out properly to protect staff? By having more people in the field, it will help the DPH.”

The state will now begin to coordinate with the National Guard for future inspections on whether infection and personal protective equipment protocols are being followed by nursing homes.

The union representing thousands of nursing home health care workers was notified by the DPH Sunday night, a source with knowledge of the communication told Hearst Connecticut Media.

The New England Health Care Workers Union spent much of Friday publicly sparring with state officials over problems at the nursing homes, which now make up nearly 50 percent of deaths related to COVID-19.

Numbers of COVID-19 positive patients in nursing homes and nursing home patient deaths related to the coronavirus increased markedly in the period from April 14 to April 22, according to the figures released Friday.

As of April 22, 3,423 nursing home residents in 135 homes throughout the state tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and 768 have died, state officials said. Statewide close to 2,000 residents have died of COVID-19 since March 1, state officials said.

State DPH official Barbara Carr said Friday that the agency has forced some homes to use a live video app to show DPH officials that they have the proper amount of PPE for staff.

Carr created a firestorm of criticism Friday when she said her investigation revealed that some nursing home staff were using trash bags by preference. Union President Rob Baril strongly denied Carr's assessment and said it was insulting to the workers.