Apr 17, 2020 3 min read

The temperatures of the 250 residents at Premier Washington Health Center are checked twice a day to make sure no one’s is more than 100 degrees. Staff also checks for new respiratory symptoms that might suggest they’ve contracted COVID-19.

Those who show these signs receive further testing, including for the flu, and for the coronavirus, if the flu is ruled out.

“We’ve done six tests, and they’ve all been negative,” said Tim Kimmel, executive director of the Chartiers Township care home.

So far, the center and others in Washington County are faring better in the pandemic than many of their counterparts during the global outbreak of the contagious respiratory illness.

“We’re following every Department of Health and (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guideline,” Kimmel said. “We’ve adapted our policies to incorporate COVID-19 protocols and procedures into our policies.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Health began listing figures for the number of cases involving the staff and residents of nursing homes and other personal care facilities on Wednesday.

The people most at risk to experience serious complications are older patients and those with preexisting conditions. Nursing homes and similar places are especially hard-hit in the outbreak.

As of Thursday, there had been 3,290 cases among residents and 394 cases affecting staff members at 306 such places in the state.

There have been 365 deaths in those types of facilities statewide – more than half of all coronavirus fatalities since early March.

So far, only one case involving a worker has been reported at a facility in Washington County. No cases have been reported so far for Greene County.

In adjacent Westmoreland, there’ve been 51 cases involving residents of care facilities and another 19 among staff at four different facilities. The specific locations were not included in state data. Thirteen of the cases were fatal.

There have been 61 reported cases among residents and nine cases among staff at two facilities in Beaver County. Those include 10 deaths.

At Beaver Borough’s Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center there were so many instances of infection, many fatal, that the state Health Department ordered the facility to presume all patients and staff could have the virus.

The Allegheny County-based Presbyterian SeniorCare Network said last week that it had tested residents at its Southminster nursing home in Washington. The move following an employee’s testing positive on April 4. The employee hadn’t been to work for several days by then.

One Southminster resident did test positive but showed no symptoms of the illness. The figures the state compiled, which list zero cases among residents, don’t appear to include the nonsymptomatic resident.

The network said last week that mask usage had been expanded to include “almost every team member” at its facilities. A spokesperson didn’t return messages left on Wednesday and Thursday.

At Premier’s Washington location, which was formerly owned by the county but sold to Philadelphia-based Premier Healthcare Management in 2017, Kimmel said similar precautions are in place.

“All units are locked down, and residents and staff have been staying on their designated units,” including for meals, Kimmel said. “All staff are wearing masks.”

He said that if possible symptoms are identified during the twice-daily checks for residents, special “droplet precautions” are implemented for that person until the coronavirus is ruled out.

Kimmel said temperatures of staff members are taken when they arrive for work and when they leave. Outside visitation was put on hold in early March.

“We’re very fortunate not to have COVID in our building up to this point,” said the director.