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State appoints independent administrator to run Norwich nursing home at center of coronavirus outbreak

Hartford Courant - 9/14/2020

The state Department of Public Health has appointed an independent manager to oversee a Norwich nursing home where a COVID-19 outbreak has been the center of some three dozen infections and three deaths.

Attorney Katharine B. Sacks was appointed over the weekend as temporary manager of the Three Rivers Healthcare Center as part of a compliance agreement between the health department, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the owners - JACC Healthcare.

In a letter to families with residents still in the facility Sacks made it clear that she will be overseeing all medical decision making.

“They are working closely with me to bring the facility back into compliance with federal requirements relating to infection prevention and control, after two very challenging recent surveys,” Sacks said in her letter.

All employees will now report to her. The letter didn’t indicate how long the arrangement will last or if the state plans additional actions.

“While the surveys that resulted in my appointment are quite concerning, all hands have begun to work together to improve the situation,” Sacks said. “I hope that you will soon notice positive changes.”

On Monday, DPH released a 71-page report on its investigation into Three Rivers, which started when the outbreak of coronavirus cases occurred in mid-August. There have been 22 residents who have tested positive for COVID -19, six staff members and three deaths.

Among the new report’s conclusions are that Three Rivers failed to properly test all of its employees as mandated by Gov. Lamont’s executive orders. A review of testing records showed that of the nursing homes' 55 employees, 16, or 29 percent, had missed weekly testing for COVID 19, the report says.

Monday’s report follows an earlier “statement of deficiency” issued by the DPH that cited the nursing home for a range of infection control deficiencies, including failure to properly cohort COVID positive and negative residents, having staff work with both COVID positive and negative residents on the same shift and lack of proper PPE.

The lapses in care at Three Rivers included the actions of a supervising nurse who came to work a double shift on July 27 after going on vacation in Rhode Island. She told several of her fellow employees that she wasn’t feeling well and that at least two members of her family had gotten COVID-19 tests, the report said.

Three days later the nurse tested positive as well. Several employees told DPH that the woman didn’t wear a mask as she worked the double shift on July 27. DPH hasn’t identified the supervising nurse, but the Courant has learned her name is Mary Ciezynski, who was working as a part-time employee at Three Rivers. Among those infected was her mother, a patient at the facility who has since died, though not of COVID.

The infection spread beyond the nursing home. At least five residents were transferred from Three Rivers to Backus Hospital in Norwich since early August. The hospital uncovered the first positive case from Three Rivers on Aug. 2, according to the DPH report.

One of those residents treated at the hospital is suspected of being responsible for an exposure at Backus, when they were placed in a regular hospital floor rather than the COVID-only floor because they originally tested negative for the virus. The patient only tested positive when they were preparing to discharge the patient, hospital officials said.

At least nine Backus employees contracted the virus. Hospital officials have said it spread because an employees wasn’t wearing the proper PPE.

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