TAMPA BAY, FL — While the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying stay-at-home orders have been difficult for families confined to their homes, it’s been even more difficult for residents of Florida’s long-term health facilities.
Even before Gov. Ron DeSantis locked down facilities March 15, the Baldomero Lopez State Veterans’ Nursing Home in Land O’ Lakes closed its doors to visitors to protect the residents from the virus.
Since then, 72-year-old W. David Langston’s world has been turned upside down, said his daughter-in-law, Jennifer Adkison Langston.
“So far, everyone is safe inside,” she said. “But my father-in-law hates it. His wife would check him out no less than five times a week for dinners or family functions. Now, with no visitors, he’s bored out of his mind.”
So, every other weekend, the Langstons take their two young sons to the nursing home to “visit” their grandfather through the facility’s windows.
At first, the boys communicated with their grandfather through the window of his room, but the nursing home later set up a public window at the end of a hallway where residents can see families members through the glass barrier and hold up signs of love and encouragement.
While it’s heartbreaking for the family not to be able to hug or hold W. David Langston’s hand, Jennifer Langston said, it’s a relief knowing the Baldomero Lopez’s coronavirus protocols have kept him safe.
The Baldomero Lopez State Veterans’ Nursing Home is among the Tampa Bay long-term care centers that have had no cases of the new coronavirus.
Florida has more than 700 nursing homes and more than 3,000 assisted living facilities. And, according to the Florida Department of Health, the number of positive cases at nursing homes and assisted living facilities totals 1,627 at more than 300 facilities, about 7 percent of the coronavirus cases in the state.
Among the facilities under scrutiny is the Seminole Rehabilitation & Nursing Service at Freedom Square in Seminole, where officials Wednesday reported the death of a fourth resident.
Now, a second nursing home in Pinellas County is reporting an outbreak of the coronavirus.
Officials confirmed that St. Mark Village in Palm Harbor has 21 cases at its skilled nursing rehabilitation unit.
St. Mark Village’s administrator, Doug Fresh, said the first positive case of the coronavirus was reported April 10. Since then, 13 residents and eight staff members have tested positive. Seven people have been hospitalized.
“St. Mark Village proactively reached out to the county and state this weekend for assistance and guidance in this battle against COVID-19,” he said. “The Village has been in contact with the governor’s office requesting a National Guard strike team to test residents and team members who live and work in the skilled nursing facility, and also to provide PPE [personal protective equipment] for our caregivers. The health and safety of our residents and team members is always our first priority, and so we asked for help. We want to do what’s right.”
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Fresh said the facility has converted its 20-bed rehab into a coronavirus care and isolation unit.
“Our current cases are being isolated and carefully and compassionately cared for in our skilled nursing rehab unit,” he said. “No other cases in any other level of care — including our assisted living, memory care, Highland Lakes assisted or our Independent Living Center — at St. Mark Village have been impacted at this time.”
He emphasized that the facility has been and is continuing to adhere to guidelines set by government officials, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization and the Agency for Healthcare Administration.
DeSantis isn’t faulting the nursing homes for the positive cases of the coronavirus. He said that while long-term care facilities may be following guidelines to the letter, a single asymptomatic employee can quickly infect elderly residents who are already at risk due to compromised immune systems.
“In a nursing home situation, even if you don’t have a major outbreak, it only takes a couple cases before that really has a big impact on what’s going on there,” DeSantis said. “We don’t know how many people are asymptomatic with it, and we don’t know what percentage of the spreaders are asymptomatic.”
To combat the spread of the virus by those who have no symptoms, DeSantis is sending four-member Florida National Guard strike teams to hundreds of nursing facilities to identify asymptomatic carriers.
In the meantime, the Langstons and other families will have to be content with visits through a window pane.
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