Beaver County nursing home presuming all residents, staff have covid-19

A Beaver County nursing home facing the largest covid-19 outbreak in the region is presuming that all of its residents and employees may have the disease.

Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Brighton Township announced the approach Monday in an unsigned statement.

“Thinking about the virus in this way allows us to be more protective of asymptomatic staff and residents,” the statement said.

The decision was made after consulting the state Department of Health and is consistent with best practices when responding to situations like the covid-19 outbreak, the statement said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the facility issued another statement to “clarify” what was stated Monday.

“By presuming every staff member and resident may be positive and treating symptoms, not test results, we are doing what we believe every facility and every person in the nation should do,” the follow-up statement said. “We are not saying that every person in our facility — any more than every person on a cruise ship, who went to a certain party or who lives in New York City — is positive.”

Nursing home officials said a number of people are inadvertently spreading covid-19 to others because they don’t have symptoms or have tested negative for the virus. However, those tests may have been false negatives or are no longer accurate by the time results are communicated.

“We do not believe a negative test means a person has not already had exposure that will cause covid-19 symptoms, nor that a positive test does not mean a person will ever become ill,” Tuesday’s statement said. “We also strongly believe asymptomatic people can transmit the virus to others.”

Some testing will continue, when necessary, to help determine appropriate treatment, officials said.

“We will continue our vigilant efforts to contain the virus,” Tuesday’s statement said. “From an early stage we have been limiting visitors and taking all other recommended precautions, and as more information is known we will continue to update our strategy.”

The facility said it continues to follow state and federal guidelines regarding covid-19 and all staffers providing direct care to residents are wearing the proper masks and protective equipment.

Residents also are being provided with masks, according to the statement.

The center has 589 beds and more than 400 residents.

The nursing home reported last week that more than three dozen of its residents had tested positive for covid-19. At least three residents have died.

In all, Beaver County had 116 cases and nine deaths as of Tuesday, according to the state health department.

Department of Health spokesman Nate Wardle said it’s important to note that the presumption that everyone in a facility has covid-19 addresses how contact should occur, and does not mean that everyone within a facility has the virus.

Cases that are confirmed through testing and deaths that occur would still be part of the state’s data, Wardle said.

“While we cannot comment on individual facilities, it is important to realize that covid-19 is a very difficult situation for our nursing homes. When an infectious disease occurs in a congregate care facility, there are significant concerns as to how quickly it can spread among both residents and employees,” Wardle said.

“The department is working with our long-term care facilities to assist them, particularly those with outbreaks and with significant areas of concern, which includes staffing issues,” Wardle added. “We have been working to push personal protective equipment to all of our long-term care facilities in Pennsylvania and sent that equipment to all facilities as of last Friday.”

Brighton Rehab medical director Dr. David Thimons didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.