Sussex Co. Nursing Home COVID-19 Death Totals Up

SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ - As the COVID-19, pandemic in nursing home and long-term care facilities continues to claim more lives, Gov. Phil Murphy's administration said testing of staff and residents for COVID-19 by May 26.

Gov. Phil Murphy, speaking during a Tuesday news conference, said a "robust" coronavirus testing and contact tracing plan needed for reopening New Jersey's economy, he says. The plan includes testing all residents and staff at long-term care facilities. It will require all residents and staff at long-term care facilities to be tested no later than May 26, with follow-up testing happening no longer than one week later.

Previously, Murphy said the nursing home and long-term care industry have been "slow to adapt."

The state has a dashboard set up that tracks the number of cases statewide, including how many cases and fatalities involve long-term care facilities. In Sussex County, the 339 cases are spread among the five impacted facilities. There have been 100 deaths at these facilities as reported by the New Jersey Department of Health on Monday.

The largest outbreak in Sussex County remains at Andover Subacute and Rehab Center II. The report shows that 190 cases were logged there and out of those there were 57 deaths. This is not the first time this particular facility has come under scrutiny, according to inspection reports.

Over the past three years the overall rating for Andover Subacute and Rehab II is one star, placing it "much below average." The health inspection during that time brought up five citations and also saw the facility one star. The health inspection star rating is based on each active provider's current health inspection survey and the two prior surveys, as well as findings from the most recent three years of complaints information and inspection revisits, records note.

The records also indicated that many of the health violations were the result of complaints to the survey agency.

Records show the facility was also found deficient in:

• telling residents, the resident's doctor, and a family member's of situations, such as injury or decline, that affect the resident.
• honoring the resident's right to a safe, clean, comfortable and homelike environment
• ensuring services provided by the nursing facility meet professional standards of quality
• ensuring that a nursing home area is free from accident hazards and provides adequate supervision to prevent accidents.

This week, the facility was fined $220,000 after a federal investigation.

Here are the facilities in Sussex County that have patients positive for the coronavirus, followed by the deaths that have happened at those facilities. The list of facilities was provided by the state Department of Health; there may be discrepancies due to a delay in communications between the facilities and the state:

Julie Ball's 84-year-old father was dehydrated, had pneumonia and was in kidney failure when he arrived at Hackettstown Hospital from Forest Manor Health Care Center. He also had COVID-19, and Ball was told nothing by the nursing home. Read more here:'NJ Woman Fights Nursing Home To Save Father From COVID-19'

Statewide, 26,476 cases of the coronavirus have been identified at 518 long-term care facilities. There have been 4,953 deaths at these facilities.

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