Advantage Living Center - Roseville
At least two dozen resients at Advantage Living Center - Roseville have contracted Covid-19. (Photo: Advantage Living Center)
Two Detroit-area nursing homes are among nine across the country that have been cited by the federal government for failing to properly safeguard against the spread of coronavirus, putting residents’ health and safety in “immediate jeopardy.”
That's according to ProPublica, which requested all inspection reports associated with such citations from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS.
At Beaconshire Nursing Centre in Detroit, an inspector saw a nurse's assistant eat lunch while feeding a resident with Covid symptoms. The nurse was not wearing protective gear.
Advantage Living Center - Roseville was meanwhile cited for requiring that nurse assistants care for as many as 41 patients at once, with staff unable to fulfill that responsibility. In at least one case, staff allegedly took too long to send a patient with Covid symptoms the hospital. The patient later died.
Hundreds of nursing home residents across Michigan have been infected with coronavirus, state data shows. In Detroit, where all 2,000 nursing home residents were tested, approximately 35 percent were positive for Covid-19.
As of April 23, two dozen patients at Advantage Living Center - Roseville had been infected with Covid-19, according to data supplied to the state. The company did not immediately respond to a request for a death count, but reported two dead a month ago.
At least 35 of Beaconshire's 79 residents have contracted coronavirus, according to data from the city of Detroit. None were reported dead as of Monday.
The Beaconshire assistant who ate with the likely Covid-infected resident reportedly was fired.
Advantage Living Center, meanwhile, tells ProPublica it's contesting the federal report due to what it claimed were errors and inaccuracies.
Kelsey Hastings, a partner and chief executive of Advantage Living Centers, said in an email that the nursing home has provided a detailed response to federal officials including evidence that contradicts the inspector.
Specifically, Hastings told ProPublica, the inspector “did not confirm the number of staff members on the shift and the nurse who she spoke to was not aware of all staff members on the unit of which we have documentation as well.”
“Our staff has been providing a high level of care under difficult and extenuating circumstances,” Hastings wrote in an email. Hastings would not provide ProPublica a copy of the response, citing privacy laws and an inability to redact personal information by deadline.
“We have followed CDC guidelines and have altered guidelines almost daily as a result of constant changes in recommendations. Our other facilities have been following the same guidelines and surveyors have given no citations and have complimented teams on the processes in place.”
Records show that Advantage Living has been cited for inadequate infection control in the past at the facility.
