Fort Myers nursing home has the state's third highest COVID-19 death count
Frank Gluck
State officials say at least 30 patients have died from COVID-19 at a Fort Myers nursing home, the third-highest fatality count for a long-term living facility in the state.
The owner of Page Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, however, disputes those numbers.
The 180-bed facility located near Page Field trails two Miami-Dade County long-term care facilities, which have seen 33 and 40 deaths since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, according to data from the state Department of Health. No other Southwest Florida nursing home comes close to those figures.
William Boyd, the for-profit center’s administrator, declined to comment and instead referred The News-Press to a New York-based public relations firm.
Geoff Thompson, a spokesman for that firm, said 14 of the residents died in the facility; another eight died while receiving hospital treatment; and eight died for “reasons unrelated to COVID-19.”
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones,” he said. “The majority of the people who died in-house were over 90 years old and they were in our hospice and palliative care units, which means they were very sick from other conditions.”
Thompson said he could not account for the discrepancy in the facility's count, compared to the state count. The state report, updated weekly, says the information was reported to the department’s epidemiological data collection system through the department’s contact tracing efforts for positive COVID-19 cases.
As of this week, 68 residents of the nursing home had tested positive for COVID-19. Thompson said: “most” recovered from their illnesses or showed no symptoms of the virus.
Long-term care facilities house those most vulnerable to COVID-19 and have accounted for roughly half of the resulting deaths in Florida, according to state figures. And those figures were only released last month after multiple media outlets sued for it under the state's open records law.
The age breakdown for all known 3,327 fatal cases in Florida helps tell the story. To date, 36% involve people 85 years and older; another 28% were between 75 and 84; and 21% were between 65 and 74.
More than 1,770 residents and employees of long-term care facilities have died in Florida, according to the state health data. All but 11 were residents.
At least 111 were in Lee County nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. One was an employee of Fort Myers Rehabilitation And Nursing Center. In Collier, 37 residents of long-term care residents have died.
Page Rehabilitation Center, formerly known as Shady Rest Care, is a for-profit facility whose services include Alzheimer's disease care, HIV care and hospice care. It accepts Medicare and Medicaid. Its daily rate is $247, a standard rate for nursing homes.
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Medicare has awarded Page Rehabilitation Center a below-average two out of five stars for overall quality.
It's the average of a mixed bag of ratings, including a top five-star rating for patient care, an average three-star rating for overall staffing numbers and a much below-average one star for its health citations.
Page Rehabilitation has had 12 health citations, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That’s about twice the Florida average.
The most recent citation happened in January after inspectors concluded the facility did not do enough to prevent two at-risk patients from falling. Both fell and needed treatment at a nearby hospital emergency department, according to the report.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which regulates nursing homes, adopted a rule this month requiring all nursing home staff to be tested every two weeks, beginning July 7. Those that don't comply face fines and/or loss of their operating licenses.
The nursing home said 52 staff members have tested positive for the novel coronavirus this year. That’s roughly a third of its employees. Eleven are currently quarantined and awaiting test results, a facility representative said.
More testing would help identify staffers who may not be showing symptoms of COVID-19 but are able to spread the virus to those they're caring for, experts say.
But even that's not likely enough, said Brian Lee, executive director of the Texas-based Families for Better Care, an advocacy group for nursing home residents. Lee is also the former Long-Term Care Ombudsman for the Florida Department of Elderly Affairs.
"Staff are regularly going out to Publix or Costco or just going to bars, restaurants, et cetera," Lee said. "They could be picking up the virus unbeknownst to them and bringing it back. They're asymptomatic and exposing it to residents."
Lee, who is unfamiliar with Page Rehabilitation's numbers and situation, said different facilities may be laxer than others in following safety guidelines.
Kristin Knapp, director of communications for the Florida Health Care Association, a nursing home advocacy group, said more robust testing at nursing homes was impossible in the early days of the pandemic because not enough tests were available.
As testing has progressed, and other safety measures were implemented, the rate of COVID-19 positives has plateaued, Knapp said.
As of Friday, 1,642 current residents of Florida's long-term care facilities had tested positive for the coronavirus, or about 1%, according to the state's Department of Health. That's about the same as the 1,641 a month earlier.
But the number of long-term facility employees who are positive has grown from 2,029 last month to 2,834.
Aside from the new state mandate, Thompson said that all residents and staff have been tested, though he did not respond when asked how often that has happened.
But he noted that it does have a designated COVID-19 unit, meaning not all patients who test positive have to go to hospitals.
"Families of residents should know that we are following all CDC, CMS (Medicare) and Department of Health guidelines," he said.
Frank Gluck is a watchdog reporter with The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. Connect with him at fgluck@news-press.com or on Twitter: @FrankGluck.