Concord Coronavirus: CareOne Nursing Home Reports Over 30 Cases

CONCORD, MA — The CareOne facility in Concord has over 30 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus. Officials have not disclosed exactly how many cases were confirmed in the nursing home and rehab facility — "30 or more" is the highest range provided by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The CareOne at Concord facility has 135 beds — the facility did not disclose how many residents were living in the Concord facility, citing the information had been given to the stat DPH.

CareOne's Massachusetts representative told Patch in a statement that the company has developed a "COVID-Capable℠ model of care." The model "Encompasses emerging standards, protocols and best practices for protecting and treating at-risk populations — These protocols are designed to ensure that residents, patients and staff at all of our centers are properly protected and cared for amid an unprecedented public health emergency," said Scott Farmelant, CareOne representative.

Farmelant added that the facility safeguards include isolating and quarantining COVID-positive patients and employees and creating a segregated COVID-unit protocol that has been validated the Massachusetts DPH. Investment into personal protective equipment has also been a priority for the company.

"The success of CareOne’s comprehensive coronavirus program indicated by an excellent recovery rate for Covid-positive patients, with some centers reporting 90 percent return to good health," Farmelant said in a statement.

"This said, CareOne employees and residents are not statistics. These are real people who have become a part of our family. We communicate directly with residents, families, and employees, every day and will continue to do so. Families also have around-the-clock access to a hotline for information. To the families that have been restricted from visiting their loved ones in Concord, please know that we will continue to do our best during these extraordinary times to connect you with your loved ones via FaceTime and other electronic means. We will continue to make those connections, which are so important, and provide as much real-time information as is possible under the circumstances. Our caregivers are doing all they can to care for your loved ones and treat them as you would," Farmelant said in a statement.

The town of Concord said it is prepared to see its number of confirmed cases spike with the added positive cases from CareOne. In the state's last update, on April 22, of town-by-town case numbers, Concord reported 63 confirmed cases. The next update will come on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

“The Town will remain in contact with the facility and DPH to ensure best practices are being followed,” Concord Fire Chief Thomas Judge said. “The Town will also continue to provide whatever assistance and support it can for the duration of the pandemic.”

There are 14 CareOne facilities in Massachusetts and all of them, with the exception of CareOne at Redstone, have reported more than 30 confirmed cases of coronavirus to the state DPH. CareOne at Redstone reported 10-30 confirmed cases.

As part of its COVID-19 reporting, DPH lists all nursing homes, rest homes and skilled nursing facilities with two or more known COVID-19 cases. There are currently more than 260 facilities on the list.