70% of Joco COVID-19 deaths are in nursing homes. We finally know which facilities
Twenty-six residents of Johnson County nursing homes have died of the new coronavirus in at least eight different facilities in the past several weeks.
Yet, while much attention has been focused on neighboring Wyandotte County and the Riverbend rehabilitation and nursing home, before Friday evening little had been released by Johnson County health officials about outbreaks there.
The virus’s toll on certain facilities in the state’s largest county had gone largely unknown among the public, specific details kept from frustrated family members whose loved ones are isolated inside nursing homes in Overland Park, Prairie Village, Lenexa and Olathe.
County health officials provided only overall numbers and, early on, identified just three facilities that had cases. They repeatedly refused to provide the names of all the affected facilities and the number of deaths and cases in each.
Dr. Sanmi Areola, director of the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment, insisted it was a privacy issue.
But on Friday evening, after The Star had again asked for that information and then submitted an open records request, Areola’s department emailed a list of Johnson County nursing facilities with COVID-19 and the number of cases and deaths in each.
That list shows that 15 facilities in the county have reported a total of 114 COVID-19 cases, which makes up one-quarter of Johnson County’s total number. Eleven locations have more than one case.
At least eight facilities have had residents die of the coronavirus. Nursing home deaths accounted for 70% of Johnson County’s total as of Friday night.
“The facilities identified ... have worked diligently to mitigate the spread of disease,” the department said Friday when releasing the information in response to The Star’s request. “Johnson County Department of Health and Environment continues to work closely with long-term care facilities in the county, surveying them on an ongoing basis to identify the possible spread of the disease and working with the facilities to prevent further illness.”
Officials with the department did not say why they were releasing the information now.
Pressure had continued to mount from families and advocates who say the public must be given information during a public health crisis. The Star reported a week ago that Johnson County was refusing to say which facilities had cases and deaths, while two counties with the largest clusters in the state were being transparent.
Across the country, health departments and states have faced similar scrutiny and questions about why more information hasn’t been provided as nursing homes have been hit hard by the coronavirus. Thousands of residents in long-term care facilities have died since the onset of the pandemic.
As of early last week, Iowa — where about half of the deaths from COVID-19 come from nursing homes — refused to identify all facilities battling the virus. North Carolina has also declined to do that.
And in Kansas, a spokeswoman with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said the agency does not release information regarding the identity of coronavirus clusters “unless the entity has self-identified or identified in the media.”
“Often times, local health departments and the facility(ies) may put something out jointly,” said Kristi Zears of KDHE.
After the nationwide outcry for more information, new federal rules were announced one week ago. Now, facilities will be required to notify residents and their families of cases inside nursing homes.
That notification, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, must occur within 12 hours of a confirmed case. The new rules also require notification within 72 hours of three or more residents and staff with a new “onset of respiratory symptoms,” according to the CMS.
Facilities also will be required to report cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, state and local health departments must be notified, but it had been up to the facilities on whether they report cases to the CDC.
Riverbend in KCK has been battling the largest outbreak in Kansas, with 128 cases and 28 deaths.
Almost daily, the Unified Government public health department provides updates to the public. That tone of transparency, county and health officials say, was set early on by Mayor David Alvey and Dr. Allen Greiner, Wyandotte County’s chief medical officer.
“This is a situation where it grew so fast,” said Janell Friesen, public information officer for the UG’s health department. “We wanted to make sure that people knew it was going on and that we were taking measures to do something about it.”
More questions than answers
Of the 15 nursing facilities battling the virus in Johnson County, Forest Creek Memory Care in Overland Park has had the most cases with 24.
Seven people there have died of COVID-19, according to information released by the county health department.
Brighton Gardens has had the second most cases, with 21, and three deaths.
But family members with loved ones inside that Prairie Village facility said they didn’t know the extent of the outbreak until Friday. One relative told The Star she didn’t know any residents had tested positive until her mother told her during a phone call last week.
Hours before the health department released information Friday evening, families received an email signed by Lisa Barnes, executive director of the Prairie Village location.
“While you may continue to see aggregate DOH (Department of Health) reporting, we wanted to share a detailed update to give you a more comprehensive picture of how COVID-19 is affecting our community,” read the email that one relative shared with The Star. “We are pleased that many team members and residents have been cleared from this virus.
“While we celebrate these recoveries we will always remember the members of our family that we have tragically lost.”
That was the first time family members reportedly were told that a resident had died of the virus. It also was the first inkling from Brighton Gardens that the coronavirus had been spreading among residents inside its community.
The email didn’t say how many at Brighton Gardens have died of COVID-19. According to the county health department, three residents there passed away from the virus.
When contacted Saturday, Brighton Gardens referred The Star to Sunrise Senior Living, the company that owns the property.
The company released a statement from Denise Falco, the company’s regional vice president of operations.
“Sunrise remains firmly focused on following our evidenced-based infection control protocols to protect our communities,” Falco said. “We are also providing timely, transparent communications to our residents, families and team members on our response to and any impact of COVID-19.
“We are deferring to local health departments to share the information they deem necessary, due to the rapidly evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In late March, Brighton Gardens sent out a letter telling families that someone on the center’s property had tested positive for the coronavirus. But one family member said the letter didn’t give much information.
Instead, it sparked many questions — was the person a resident or staff member, did he or she have any contact with residents and which part of the center did the person live or work in. Brighton Gardens includes assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation services.
Such questions, however, were left unanswered. A corporate official said the information was protected by privacy, the family member told The Star.
Eventually families were told that the person who tested positive was a worker, but not someone who prepared food or was a nurse or caregiver.
Three weeks later, Brighton Gardens sent an email with the subject line of “Family Newsletter.” Attached to the April 17 email was a letter summarizing the precautions the center was taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The letter, however, didn’t mention anything about whether anyone else had tested positive, let alone whether anyone had died
The most information from facility administrators came in Friday’s email. In that, residents were told that a total of 20 people — 13 residents and seven team members — had tested positive for the virus. It isn’t clear why the county numbers have one additional case.
‘A duty to talk’
The amount of information the public gets regarding the coronavirus no doubt can depend on where you live.
And while smaller communities across the country often provide details to keep residents informed, so have some larger counties. At least in Kansas.
This week, the Unified Government in Wyandotte County will release a data hub that will provide more information on virus clusters in the community and additional details on the racial and demographic breakdown of cases.
That’s on top of the daily dashboard the UG has on its website and the regular updates the health department puts on its Facebook page regarding cases and deaths at Riverbend.
“We feel like the community needs to know what is going on,” said Dave Reno, interim communications director for the UG. “So we have a duty to talk about positive confirmations in our county.”
On Friday, the health department posted information about two other nursing facilities in Wyandotte County that are battling the coronavirus.
Delaware Highlands assisted living has had 18 cases, two of them employees. And Life Care Center of Kansas City, which had Kansas’ first COVID-19 death last month, now has two residents and two employees with the coronavirus, the health department said.
The goal with all the details the UG is providing, said Alan Howze, assistant county administrator for the Unified Government, is to make information widely available so residents stay updated on what is happening and on what officials are experiencing and doing.
“... If they have information it will them understand the scope and depth of the pandemic,” Howze said. “But also help them understand and recognize the sacrifice that we are asking them to make in abiding by the stay-at-home order.”
In the past several weeks, the first major outbreak in Kansas occurred inside Life Care Center of Burlington, a nursing facility in the eastern part of the state. As Life Care cases continued to climb, tallying at least 43 positive tests and three deaths, the Coffey County Health Department put updates on Facebook.
Last Monday, the county posted about two new cases and one new recovery. On that post, one resident commented:
“I feel more comfortable and in control as a result of the health dept updates and postings. Thank you SO MUCH!!”
Johnson County facilities, numbers
Fifteen facilities have reported residents and/or staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Four have just one case and are not listed. Following are the 11 facilities with multiple cases:
▪ Advanced Health Care Overland Park, six cases, one death;
▪ Brighton Gardens, 21 cases, three deaths;
▪ Brookdale Rosehill, three cases;
▪ Forest Creek Memory Care, 24 cases, seven deaths;
▪ Garden Terrace, two cases;
▪ Homestead of Olathe Memory Care, 14 cases, four deaths;
▪ Lakeview Village Independent Living, 10 cases, three deaths;
▪ Stratford Commons, 20 cases, three deaths;
▪ Sunrise of Leawood, six cases, three deaths;
▪ Sunrise of Lenexa, two cases, one death;
▪ Village Shalom, two cases.
This story was originally published April 26, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
