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Fort Worth-area nursing home reacted too late to COVID outbreak, nurse and families say

Fort Worth Star-Telegram - 7/23/2020

Jul. 23--A coronavirus outbreak among residents and staff at a nursing home in Azle grew in part due to a lack of basic safety measures until after the sickness arrived, according to an employee and family members of residents.

At least 60 of about 120 Azle Manor residents are believed to have COVID-19, filling three out of six halls in the facility, the employee, who is a nurse, said. A total of 25 nurses and certified nursing assistants with the virus have been asked to go home, the nurse said.

Three family members of residents told the Star-Telegram officials informed them in phone calls late on July 15 that their loved ones had tested positive and were moved to one of the isolated halls. The news, they said, came as a shock -- especially because for weeks they had believed there was only one case, which was under control.

A woman whose mother lives in the facility said she wasn't too concerned when an official called her on July 6 to tell her one resident had tested positive and everyone would be tested. But last week, having received no updates from Azle Manor, she started seeing social media posts about a crisis unfolding at the nursing home. On the night of July 15, she got the call that her mother, who is in her late 80s, had COVID-19.

The woman said she began messaging with nurses over Facebook who told her about the approximate size of the outbreak and growing discontent among staff.

The nurse who spoke with the Star-Telegram says residents were allowed to roam with no social distancing or mask mandates as recently as last week. The nurse said staff members had not been told how many residents actually had the coronavirus.

Reached over the phone and informed about this story, Azle Manor administrator Kinny Pack said he had no comment. Anybody "can say anything," he said.

The woman whose mother is in the facility said she called the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services on July 17 to tell them the nursing home was misleading the public about an outbreak. The agency was at Azle Manor over the weekend and on Monday investigating, the nurse said.

"The way I read it, they're supposed to tell us every time there's a new positive," the woman whose mother is in the nursing home said. "And that never happened. July 6 was the only time they called and told us."

The Tarrant County division of the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services didn't respond to a request for comment.

Azle Manor is about 17 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

The individuals who spoke with the Star-Telegram did so on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation from the nursing home.

A note was recently posted in nurses stations instructing staff members what to do if approached by the media.

According to an image obtained by the Star-Telegram, the note is addressed to staff and says, in part, "If you were to get a call from the Star Telegram paper or from Channel 4 news asking questions about the facility -- DO NOT!!! speak with them. It is a HIPAA violation. Supposedly a family member has called them -- say no comment and hang up ... FYI we are not hiding anything the issue has been reported to Tarrant County Public Health as well as HHSC (state)."

Those interviewed for this story said they think the nursing staff has been dedicated to patients and have their best interest in mind.

In recent weeks at Azle Manor, the nurse said, computer records show there have been five deaths. She didn't know if these were caused by the coronavirus.

The slow response from management is perplexing considering the deadly coronavirus clusters that have developed since March at nursing homes across North Texas, according to the people interviewed for this story. In Tarrant County, public health data indicates people age 65 and over are most vulnerable to COVID-19, making up roughly 68 percent of deaths.

Other facilities in the county have prohibited residents from roaming in hallways since March, according to the nurse. Though Azle Manor stopped outside visitors in March, she said residents were given freedom to walk around and congregate before all of the cases emerged last week. And in at least one case, a person was put into a room with someone who later tested positive for COVID-19, she said.

'We want to know the truth'

A now-deleted Facebook post from July 11 provided many people with family members at the nursing home with their first indication something was wrong. The person wrote: "Azle Manor needs prayers. Covid is running through the building."

The post attracted dozens of comments from those who wanted to know more.

One North Texas woman, whose mother-in-law lives in the facility, told the Star-Telegram she left a comment on the post seeking further explanation. Two nurses quickly sent her private messages saying there were far more than one case, with about half of the building being moved to COVID-19 halls. She found out last week that her own mother-in-law had tested positive for coronavirus.

She's been told her mother-in-law is asymptomatic, she said.

She has reached out to several agencies, from the Centers for Disease Control to Tarrant County Public Health, trying to figure out what the nursing home is required to tell them.

"We want to know the truth," she said. "We would've felt so much better if we would've just been told the truth from the beginning -- 'Hey, there is an outbreak but we're doing everything we can to handle it' ..."

A woman whose father is an Azle Manor resident said she found out in a phone call July 15 he had the virus, and has learned of the extent of the outbreak through nurses. She told the Star-Telegram she was hesitant to speak out against the facility, however, because it has been good for her father.

But she said she believes someone has to answer for playing down the real situation at the nursing home.

She has spent a lot of time recently praying about her father, feeling like there's nothing else she can do, she said. She knows he is at high risk, she said, and "this could be it.

"If it's not his time, than he'll pull through this," she said. "And if it is his time it'll be peaceful, and he won't suffer."

State investigation

Officials with the Department of Aging and Disability Services were at the nursing home on Saturday, Sunday and Monday investigating the conditions, according to the nurse.

They asked staff members about how management had responded to the coronavirus, including what type of restrictions had been put in place for residents and what type of protective equipment was available to staff, the nurse said. The nurse informed an official that staff members have been wearing flimsy paper masks and paper gowns, and only recently received goggles and shields. Gowns have to be hung on the back of doors to be reused, she said.

The nurse hopes the investigation can lead to a more transparent and safe environment for staff.

"When there's COVID or anybody sick, we have a right to know that," she said. "Because you're putting us in these rooms and not telling us, and we don't know, and then you wonder why it gets spread the way it does."

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