‘Please don’t let me die’: I-Team investigates nursing home horrors

by: Carl Monday

(WJW) – Placing a loved one in a nursing home or assisted living facility is one of the hardest decisions a family will ever have to make. It’s being made even more difficult by a rash of recent incidents involving elderly residents who have died in unusual situations while in the care of local nursing home facilities.

FOX 8’s Carl Monday learns more about what’s behind the disturbing trend. Watch in the video above.

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‘Please don’t let me die’: I-Team investigates nursing home horrors

St. Joseph's Home of Springfield, a Catholic nursing facility, is closing in December

by Steven Spearie

St. Joseph's Home of Springfield, a Catholic nursing care facility for men and women, announced that it would close Dec. 15.
(Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register)

Sarah Allen said family members were on the phone immediately after finding out Tuesday that St. Joseph's Home was closing after 118 years.

Allen's father, Jim Morris, has lived in the nursing care facility owned and operated by a Roman Catholic women's religious community since May 2017.

The home at 3306 S. Sixth Street Road is closing Dec. 15.

Allen admitted she was "surprised and shocked" by the announcement, but that didn't keep her and her five siblings from the task of trying to relocate their 85-year-old father.

"Shocked because he loves it there and we love it, too," Allen said. "He has done really, really well there and has found a community and a family and a place to be."

The announcement was made on the Sisters of St. Francis of the Immaculate Conception website. Family members, residents and staff were also informed Tuesday.

The Illinois Department of Public Health has been notified and has approved the plan of closure. The home's leadership confirmed it will surrender its license.

The Franciscan Sisters, also known as "the Sisters of Heading Avenue," have owned and operated the home since its founding in 1903.

The president of the West Peoria, Illinois-based congregation, Sister Kathleen Ann Mourisse, said in a news release one of the main reasons for the decision was the declining number of sisters to staff the home. 

“This is not something we want to do," Mourisse said. "We do not have enough sisters to continue this beloved ministry. Many, if not most, religious communities in our country are also facing the same dilemma. In addition, the climate created by COVID-19 has contributed to both a reduction in the resident census and a severe staffing shortage, not only at St. Joseph’s but throughout the healthcare industry.”

Mourisse declined further comment to The State Journal-Register.

The home's administrator didn't immediately return a phone call to the newspaper.

There are just under 50 residents living at the home, which includes Holy Family, a memory care unit.

The home's plan of closure stated that it will make "every reasonable effort to accommodate each resident's goals, preferences and needs regarding receipt of services, location and setting." Home administrators are working with IDPH and a local ombudsman to ensure it complies with all regulations and required procedures governing the transition.  

Allen, the only one of six siblings who lives in Springfield, said the home gave residents' families resources, including phone numbers and contacts for all of the nursing homes in the Springfield area.

Allen said she had an appointment to look at another nursing home for her father, a former state of Illinois worker, on Wednesday.

"We're hopeful," Allen admitted. "Our options are fairly limited, though, but we're trying to find a place to accommodate him."

Mike Armstrong, who has visited a number of friends at the home, including Morris, also professed surprise at the announcement, but stood by the sisters.

"Those sisters really had the well-being of all those patients in their hearts," Armstrong said. "They really worked hard to keep the patients not just alive, but really enjoying life. They are very special people."

Springfield Catholic Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, in a prepared statement, said he was grateful to the sisters who have worked "across many generations in this community."

"I know this decision has been a difficult but necessary one for the sisters, and I also know they and their staff are committed to working with families to find new homes for the residents of St. Joseph’s Home," Paprocki added.

Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder said the news was "heartbreaking."

"It's a sad day in Springfield (with the closure)," Langfelder admitted. "It's a turning of the page, so to speak. It's a wake-up call for all of us to understand that those services are still needed and how do we move forward, making sure that people are taken care of.

"It's something you never thought would happen, but it has."

Allen said one of the things she appreciated was that her father could attend daily Mass at the home. 

"That's one of the main things that makes me sad for him is the community he has developed and leaving that behind," Allen said. "It'll be interesting to see how things move from here."

Despite the timing of the announcement, Allen, a teacher at Blessed Sacrament School, said she bore no ill will toward the sisters.

"I think they would keep it going as long as they could, if they could," Allen said. "I really believe they're trying to do everything they can."

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St. Joseph's Home of Springfield, a Catholic nursing facility, is closing in December

New Hampshire long-term care facilities face ‘huge’ staffing shortage

by Amy Coveno

 

CONCORD, N.H. — Long-term care facilities around New Hampshire are struggling with critical staff shortages.

Nursing homes are facing stiff competition when it comes to finding workers.

Some restaurants are closing during the week or cutting their hours down because of staff shortages, but long-term care facilities don't have that option. They are all-day, everyday operations and they desperately need workers.

"The fact that we are experiencing a huge staffing crisis has been troubling when it comes to all facets of facility operation," Brendan Williams, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Health Care Association, said.

Williams told WMUR he is more worried right now about staffing shortages than about the summer surge in COVID-19 cases around the state.

"Staff is really the existential issue right now and facilities just don't have the means with their Medicaid reimbursement to be as competitive as they want to be with a thriving service economy right now," Williams said.

Low unemployment in New Hampshire has employers competing for a work force that is lured to other industries by incentives that nursing homes just can't compete with.

"When I hear examples of restaurants that are offering $20 and hour and 401k's and health insurance and yet can't find takers, and this is in the Seacoast area for example, you know facilities can't compete with that," Williams said.

There are openings for all kinds of workers, including dietary, facility and nurses and nurse’s aides.

Nursing homes can only take the number of people that they can appropriately provide care for and Medicaid reimbursement rates just can't compete with private sector hourly wages, according to Williams.

"I almost wince when you drive around the state and you see these help-wanted signs in all the windows, or you go by a Walmart and you see that they are offering $16 to $17 and hour," Williams said.

The "New Hampshire Needs Caregivers" website is aggressively recruiting licensed nursing assistants right now.

The website is promoting training costs reimbursed by the state, and even has an option for people under the age of 18 to apply for the program, as well as a $500 bonus.

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New Hampshire long-term care facilities face ‘huge’ staffing shortage

Nursing Home Claims It’s Allowed to Have COVID Positive Employees Working Amid Staffing Shortage

by Johnny Lopez

An Illinois nursing home is being investigated following an outbreak in which more than 90 people became infected and 12 died.

In response to the spread of the virus, Stearns Nursing and Rehab in Madison County claims it can let employees who have COVID-19 continue to work on the premises, reported Fox 2.

A staff member at the nursing home told the news outlet that when she tested positive for the virus she was told she could continue working. While wanting to remain anonymous, the employee disclosed she did not return to work while infected.

When contacted by the TV station, a representative for Stearns Nursing pointed to the CDC’s guidelines entitled “Strategies to Mitigate Healthcare Personnel Staffing Shortages.”

Should a staffing crisis occur, the guidelines advise health care providers (HCP) with “suspected or confirmed COVID-19,” who are well enough to work, be kept apart from others.

If no other staff is available during the crisis, the guidelines allow for infected workers to care for “suspected or confirmed” infected patients.

“As a last resort, allow HCP with confirmed COVID-19 to provide direct care for patients without suspected or confirmed COVID-19,” the CDC guidelines said. In other words, it would allow  a healthcare worker with coronavirus to look after a COVID negative patient.

The Illinois Department of Health acknowledged the CDC’s guidelines, but maintains a more stringent policy.

“While the CDC allows a positive employee who is asymptomatic to continue working if there is a staffing shortage, IDPH discourages it,” the Department of Health told the outlet.

The IDPH would allow an asymptomatic COVID positive employee to work only if all other staffing options were exhausted. In addition, the infected employee would only be allowed to cohort with “COVID-19 recovered or positive residents, and recovered or other asymptomatic positive staff.”

Stearns Nursing and Rehab would not disclose how many of the more than 90 positive cases involved members of their staff.

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Nursing Home Claims It’s Allowed to Have COVID Positive Employees Working Amid Staffing Shortage

Nursing home resident, advocate in Massachusetts experiences staffing shortage first-hand

by  Kathy Curran

Click to Watch Video

BRAINTREE, Mass. — Penny Shaw was in pain as she lay helpless in her bed at Braintree Manor Nursing Home amid the COVID-19 pandemic. She became so desperate she even called Braintree Police.

"I was screaming, get me out of here, get me out of here, I was in terrible pain," she said. "And they didn't come for me."

Shaw, 77, suffers from quadriparesis and needs total care. She is also a national advocate for nursing home residents who were named earlier this month to the White House's Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes.

"I can't lay in bed for hours and hours in pain like that," she said. "We need a quality, safe, respectful, individualized care, person centric care, all care."

Her complaints about the care at Braintree Manor filed with the Department of Public Health put the spotlight on several issues also playing out nationwide. She said in her complaints that:

• staffing shortages were impacting basic care, including that aides did not have enough time to give her a weekly shower
• one morning, there were only two certified nursing assistants for 39 residents
• She was stuck in bed for hours and had missed breakfast several times
• there was not always enough personal protective equipment
• on one day, a COVID-positive resident was wandering around without a mask and entering other people's rooms.

"We need to have adequate staff. We need to keep people separate the physical distancing," she said. "We need to have infection control procedures."

Braintree Manor Healthcare 

 

The staffing issues in Braintree Manor Healthcare were cited repeatedly in a 2019 inspection of the home that found actual harm-investigators discovered residents were being improperly restrained because there weren't enough staff to supervise them.

Toby Edelman with the Center for Medicare Advocacy says staffing shortages and improper infection control had a devastating impact in facilities across the country.

"Having not enough staff is the most serious problem. And it made the pandemic much worse," she said.

Toby Edelman, senior policy attorney with the Center for Medicare Advocacy, said low staffing and poor infection control has been an issue in nursing homes for years.

 

In Massachusetts, nursing homes were hit especially hard. Sixty-two percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the state were in long term care facilities, according to state data.

"Nursing homes were not prepared for this pandemic. They didn't have enough staff. They did not have proper infection control practices for a very, very long time. And so when this pandemic hit, they were they did not know what to do," Edelman said.

Next Step Healthcare, the company that owns Braintree Manor Healthcare, said in a statement that ample personal protective equipment has been secured and is available, and the home passed its most recent on-site audit with a perfect score.

"The safety of our residents and employees is of the utmost importance, and this is at the center of all decisions we make," the company statement said.

Shaw said she wants her speaking out and serving on the White House panel to be a wake-up call for nursing homes everywhere.

"I would say the hope with this project is to save lives today as soon as possible and in the future," she said.

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Nursing home resident, advocate in Massachusetts experiences staffing shortage first-hand

Nursing Homes Struggle As Staff Choose Unemployment Checks Over Paychecks

by Gabrielle Emanuel

Some nursing homes and long-term-care facilities say they're struggling to fill shifts as certified nursing assistants opt for unemployment benefits during the pandemic.

SolStock/Getty Images

Shanna LaFountain has been a nursing assistant in New England for 20 years. About two months ago, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, she stopped working.

"It was an extremely hard decision," she said.

LaFountain has three children and made the decision once their schools closed and their learning went online.

"My son was not answering teachers, not doing assignments," she said. "I had to be home with my children."

Instead of working, she gets state unemployment benefits and receives another $600 each week from the federal government. She is making more money now than when she works.

LaFountain is not alone. As part of the CARES Act, the federal government added an extra $600 per week to individuals' unemployment checks. Such benefits may be available not only to those who were let go but also to those who quit their jobs due to the virus.

While a Federal Reserve report said the expanded benefits provide a critical lifeline to many individuals, there is concern that the additional money is leading crucial workers to stay home. Nursing homes and long-term-care facilities, hard hit by the pandemic, have been struggling with understaffing.

The nurse staffing agency LaFountain used to work for, called IntelyCare, reports that about 30% of its certified nursing assistants, or CNAs, are choosing to take unemployment during the pandemic.

"Without them, you've got administrators, cafeteria workers, you've got all sorts of nurses performing the CNA duties. And then you just have people that aren't getting attention because there's just not enough people working," said David Coppins, CEO of IntelyCare, which operates in 14 states and helps long- term-care facilities fill their empty shifts.

In a typical nursing home, about two-thirds of the workforce are CNAs, Coppins said. They often have the closest relationships with the patients and spot early signs of health problems.

Before the pandemic, IntelyCare found workers for about 80% of the shifts that long-term-care facilities asked help in filling. Now, Coppins said, it's lucky to fill 50%.

"I've been talking with administrators day and night and they're all crying about this," said Micha Shalev, who co-owns Dodge Park and Oasis at Dodge Park, two facilities in Worcester, Mass., that specialize in dementia care.

So far, none of Shalev's residents have tested positive for the virus. His facilities and others have been taking extra precautions, he said, but are doing so with far less staff than they need — in large part because of the unemployment checks.

"I'm not against paying people for their unemployment," he said. "But in order to do justice, they should be paying all the front-line workers in health care at least the same, if not even more."

Shalev has resorted to offering his staff bonuses during the pandemic, but said that's not realistic for all facilities. He said the government should supplement the wages of nurses and CNAs.

Congress is debating whether to extend the extra $600 a week unemployment benefit beyond the end of July.

"Without that 600, I would have to go back," said LaFountain. While she misses her patients, she added, the pay rates don't match the risks.

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Nursing Homes Struggle As Staff Choose Unemployment Checks Over Paychecks