Days before a Seattle-area nursing home became the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., visitors entered without signing in, halls were packed and dozens gathered in a cramped room for a Mardi Gras party.
Visitors came in as they always did, sometimes without signing in. Staffers had only recently begun wearing face masks, but the frail residents and those who came to see them were not asked to do so. And organized events went on as planned, including a purple- and gold-festooned Mardi Gras party last week, where dozens of residents and visitors packed into a common room, passed plates of sausage, rice and king cake, and sang as a Dixieland band played “When the Saints Go Marching In.
As disease detectives try to solve the mystery of how exactly the coronavirus got inside Life Care, they also are questioning whether the 190-bed home that had been fined before over its handling of infections was as vigilant as it could have been in protecting its vulnerable patients against an outbreak that had already killed thousands in China and around the world.
Several family members and friends who visited residents at Life Care over the past few weeks told the AP that they didn’t notice any unusual precautions, and none said they were asked about their health or if they had visited China or any other countries struck by the virus. “The hallways were crowded with people. The place was buzzing,” she said. “All the doors to the rooms were open, and I could see there were multiple people in there. I kept thinking how people were on top of each other.”
Betsy McCaughey, chairwoman of the nonprofit Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, said that by the day the Mardi Gras party was held, the nursing home should have been doing more to protect its residents. While Life Care generally has a good rating with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, state inspectors last April found infection-control deficiencies following two flu outbreaks that affected 17 residents and staff. Life Care was fined $67,000. A follow-up inspection found that it had corrected the problems.
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