5 Deaths, 11 Cases Of Coronavirus At Lemont Center: IDPH

LEMONT, IL — Lemont Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, otherwise known as Lemont Center, has 11 reported cases of coronavirus and five related deaths, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported May 29.

However, the facility reported different numbers to Patch, and said it has had a total of 32 positive cases since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ron Nunziato, CEO of Extended Care Clinical & Consulting, LLC, which manages Lemont Center, told Patch the facility has 12 current cases, of which 11 were admitted as positive.

"Lemont Center continues to work with our health care partners including hospitals in our area as part of the continuum of care for individuals that are COVID positive. Lemont Center had early experience with caring for COVID positive residents and we have since admitted 13 positive individuals from our hospital partners," Nunziato said. "Our 'recovery rate' of earlier residents reached 75 percent which we believe given the demographics of this illness we were pleased with and showed that our staff knew how to care for these individuals. The staff at Lemont Center embraces the caring fact that we know: anyone who’s in need of care that we can meet- will be cared for at Lemont Center."

IDPH is now sharing the case numbers of residents and staff of long-term care facilities. The data is reported starting from the beginning of the coronavirus response on Jan. 24. Numbers are current as of May 29. Lemont Center has not given information on how many cases are residents or staff members.

The cases included in the data include lab confirmed cases and cases meeting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outbreak case definition. Facilities report the data to local health departments, who then report to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

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Lemont Center, 12450 Walker Road, has 143 certified beds, according to Medicare's website. Medicare rates the facility "much above average" overall. More specifically, it is rated as "above average" for health inspections, "below average" for staffing and "much above average" for quality measures.

In Cook County, IDPH is reporting there are 9,890 cases of coronavirus in long-term care facilities and 1,583 related deaths. As of May 31, the Cook County Department of Public Health is reporting 162 congregate settings, like long-term care facilities or nursing homes, are reporting one or more cases in Cook County (excluding Chicago, Evanston, Oak Park, Skokie and Stickney Township which have their own health departments).