State updates reporting to show COVID-19 cases in Cape Cod nursing homes

BREWSTER — In one of the Cape’s first publicly reported cases of a nursing home outbreak, nearly two-thirds of the residents at Pleasant Bay Nursing & Rehabilitation Center have tested positive for COVID-19.

As of Monday, after three rounds of testing, 60 of the 92 residents at the facility on South Orleans Road have tested positive, according to a statement from the town.

Five residents were not tested and it was the town’s understanding that those residents refused the voluntary testing.

- Read more about the impact of the coronavirus on Cape Cod

Pleasant Bay Administrator Steven Colarusso confirmed the case reports in a statement released Monday, noting that many of the positive cases “are currently asymptomatic.”

“We are communicating these results to family members,” he said.

Residents who have tested positive for the virus are being isolated and cared for, Colarusso said.

Also on Monday evening the state Department of Public Health released a new coronavirus dashboard that for the first time broke out nursing home cases by facility.

DPH officials said that in addition to the cases at Pleasant Bay, there are more than 30 cases of coronavirus at Royal Cape Cod Nursing Center, 10 to 30 at South Dennis Healthcare Center and fewer than 10 cases each at Bourne Manor and JML Falmouth.

State licensing and enforcement officials from the DPH and Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality “are actively involved in overseeing the response at Pleasant Bay,” Brewster Town Administrator Peter Lombardi wrote in the town’s statement.

Cape Cod Healthcare and the Visiting Nurse Association of Cape Cod are working to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus at the home and in the community by making sure appropriate staff and personal protective equipment are available.

Brewster had its first two positive cases on March 21, town officials said.

Now, including the 60 at Pleasant Bay, Brewster has had 76 positive cases, according to the town.

In early April, the state introduced a new on-site testing program for residents and staff of nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and other long-term care facilities.

On April 10, Pleasant Bay voluntarily participated in the program after several of the residents experienced COVID-19 symptoms, according to the town.

Pleasant Bay is a 70,000-square-foot facility with more than 150 professionals who “work to provide the highest level of care to residents in our nursing wings, patients in our post-hospitalization rehabilitation wing, and outpatients with physical therapy requirements,” according to its website.

It was opened in 1995 and sold last year to the Pointe Group, a small chain that owns several other facilities in the state.

Colarusso praised the “heroic work” of facility employees in caring for patients in his Monday statement.

“Pleasant Bay has been following all CDC and state guidelines, including use of PPE and visitor restrictions since early March,” he said.

The Pointe Group also owns Seashore Point, a home in Provincetown, and is awaiting test results for the residents there.

Nursing homes in Massachusetts have been hit hard by COVID-19.

As of Sunday, more than 6,000 residents and health care workers in over 250 long-term care facilities in Massachusetts had tested positive for COVID-19. More than half of the fatalities from coronavirus — 884 out of 1,706 reported as of Sunday — had occurred in long-term care facilities.

The information gap about what is happening in local nursing homes narrowed Monday with the DPH release of information on individual facilities.

In addition, the federal government is now requiring nursing homes with coronavirus cases to report that fact to patients and their families.

Nursing homes will now be required to report coronavirus cases directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in a White House press briefing Sunday.

“It's important that patients and their families have the information that they need, and they need to understand what's going on in the nursing home,” Verma said.

CMS plans to make the data available to the public but has not decided how yet.

Residents of nursing homes have been at particular risk of the coronavirus, with thousands of deaths occurring in facilities across the county.

One of the earliest U.S. outbreaks occurred at the Life Care Center in Washington state, where several dozen people died.

In an effort to prevent infection from spreading, visitors have been banned from visiting nursing homes in Massachusetts since March 15 under an order by Gov. Charlie Baker.

Tara Gregorio, head of the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, urged state officials last week to take steps to avoid a “dire” prediction that 3 to 10 percent of nursing home residents could die of coronavirus.

She called for universal testing of both symptomatic and asymptomatic nursing home residents and staff, ensuring staff has enough personal protective equipment and paying workers a “hero” double-time wage,

Gregorio also requested help from the National Guard or the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army in staffing nursing homes in Massachusetts.

Brewster town officials said they will work with appropriate agencies to keep the community safe.

“Although state agencies license the facility and have authority over its management, Brewster town officials will continue to be engaged in monitoring the response to the cases identified at Pleasant Bay,” the town wrote.

The DPH invited citizens concerned about nursing homes and COVID-19 to call its Nursing Home Family Resource hotline at (617) 660-5399.

Thomas Lyons of the DPH said the hotline has received about 3,000 calls since launching April 7.

The hotline runs 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week to answer questions and connect people to resources.

Follow Ethan Genter on Twitter: @EthanGenterCCT. Follow Cynthia McCormick: @Cmccormickcct.

