Sussex County Nursing Home COVID-19 Deaths Continue To Rise

SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ - As the new coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic in nursing home and long-term care facilities continues to claim more lives, Gov. Phil Murphy has called in the National Guard to assist.

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Murphy said the nursing home and long-term care industry have been "slow to adapt" as 22,602 coronavirus cases have been identified and 4,151 have died – about half of the state's overall total.

Murphy said his administration has been leading reviews of long-term care facilities and enforcing measures to protect residents and staff.

Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said her department has already curtailed visitation, enforced the notification of outbreaks and required people to wear masks. Now they've also:

• Worked with the National Guard to provide "some efforts" in assisting the facilities, although they weren't specified.
• Conducted an inspection of 60 facilities in April to check for the availability of personal protective equipment, the quality of infection control and staffing levels, among other criteria.
• Directed at least four sites to develop "directed plans of correction" after the inspections, and several facilities have to bring in consultants to assist. She didn't identify the facilities.
• A big part of the nursing home and long-term care problem is that, health officials have acknowledged, the numbers are probably higher – maybe even way higher – than reported.

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 329 cases are spread among the five impacted facilities. There have been 85 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 180 cases were logged there and out of those there were 54 deaths.

The facility has recorded dozens of positive coronavirus cases, but the cause of death for the deceased has not been confirmed. 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.

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:

• Barn Hill Care Center, Newton, 16, 0
• Valley View Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, Newton, 19, 7
• Homestead Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, Newton, 61, 11
• Andover Subacute and Rehab Center I, Andover Boro, 52, 13
• Andover Subacute and Rehab Center II, Andover Boro, 180, 54

Statewide, 22,602 cases of the coronavirus have been identified at 509 long-term care facilities. There have been 4,151 deaths at these facilities, with the most egregious case documented at the Andover Subacute & Rehab Center Two, where police removed 17 bodies from the facility last week. Read more here:'Makeshift Morgue' Nursing Home In NJ Had Violations, Complaints

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