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Over 750 residents in Tarrant nursing homes, assisted living facilities have had COVID

Fort Worth Star-Telegram - 7/28/2020

Jul. 28--In Tarrant County nursing homes and assisted living facilities, there have been over 750 residents and more than 400 employees who contracted the novel coronavirus, and at least 140 residents who died and tested positive for it, according to detailed data released for the first time Monday by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

The state also released figures on COVID-19 cases in state supported living facilities and state hospitals. Monday's release on which nursing homes and assisted living facilities have reported COVID-19 cases in Texas comes after the Attorney General's Office ruled earlier this month that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission must publicly release the names of facilities that have had outbreaks.

HHSC had previously cited HIPPA privacy laws as a reason for withholding the names of facilities, despite calls for increased transparency. The figures shed new light on the scope of where COVID-19 infections are occurring and at which facilities.

"HHSC has a legal and ethical obligation to protect the private health information of everyone we serve, both in the private facilities we regulate and those we operate," former HHSC Executive Commissioner Phil Wilson said in a statement Monday. "We appreciate the guidance from the Attorney General of Texas, which allows us to release this additional data while maintaining important personal privacy protections."

Data will be updated on HHSC's website weekdays by 3 p.m. All data from nursing homes and assisted living facilities is self-reported, and does not include residents who may have been discharged from a facility. While HHSC investigates every nursing home and assisted living facility that reports a positive case, it notes that the data is provisional, and that the agency cannot verify the accuracy of each facility's report.

Nursing homes have become hot spots for the virus' outbreak in Texas, and an elderly man who lived in an Arlington retirement center was the first to die from COVID-19 in Tarrant County. Gov. Greg Abbott previously directed all nursing home residents and staff to be tested for COVID-19.

As of July 13, some Tarrant County area nursing homes had as many as 47 residents with active COVID-19 infections. The facilities with 30 or more active infections among residents at the time include the Estates Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center in Fort Worth, The Pavilion at Creekwood in Mansfield, the West Side Campus of Care in White Settlement, Fort Worth Wellness and Rehabilitation and the Downtown Health and Rehabilitation Center in Fort Worth, according to state data.

The nursing homes with the highest reported resident deaths as of July 13 included Keller Oaks Healthcare Center with 20, AdventHealth Care Center Burleson with 13 and Renaissance Park Multi Care Center, Marine Creek Nursing & Rehabilitation and Wedgewood Nursing Home all with eight each.

Many of the nursing homes with the highest cumulative totals of resident deaths had also seen numbers in the double-digits of residents recovering from the virus. For example, Keller Oaks Healthcare Center -- which reported 20 deaths -- had seen 58 residents recover, according to state data.

According to federal data last month, nursing homes accounted for at least 34% of COVID-19 related deaths in Tarrant County at the time, although the number was likely to be higher.

For assisted living facilities, the facilities with the highest number of active cases among residents as of July 13 included Grand Brook Memory Care of Grapevine with 26 active cases, Autumn Leaves of Flower Mound with 22 active cases and Tandy Village in Fort Worth with 15 active cases at the time.

Among the assisted living facilities with the highest numbers of resident deaths according to state data, Meadowbrook Memory Care Community in Arlington reported eight, Avalon Care Group 7200 in Arlington reported five and Grand Brook Memory Care of Grapevine reported 4, as of July 13.

HHSC must first review data self-reported by nursing homes and assisted living facilities, causing a two-week delay from the date of the data compared to when it was publicly posted online.

Meanwhile, data published on state supported living centers and state hospitals will reflect confirmed cases as of the previous business day. HHSC operates 13 state-supported living centers that provide 24-hour residential care, medical services and vocational training for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and 10 state hospitals that provide acute inpatient psychiatric care for adults, children and adolescents.

At the Denton State Supported Living Center, a home for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities that had emerged as a hotspot in March for COVID-19 cases, active infections are still present.

According to HHSC data, a little over 10% of all residents and staff at the center have been infected with COVID-19 at some point. As of July 24, there were 22 active COVID-19 cases among residents and 17 among facility staff. There had been one resident death, and 62 residents and 95 staff have recovered from the virus, according to state data.

In late March, four residents had tested positive for the virus. A week later that number had risen to 45, in addition to seven staff members. The facility was put into lockdown, with no visitors allowed and residents required to stay on site. The separation was difficult for families, some who struggled to explain their sudden absence.

Active and previous infections, in addition to the resident death, at the Denton State Supported Living Center represent about 22% of all cases and deaths across Texas' state supported living centers.

At the Terrell State Hospital about 40 miles east of Dallas, among residents there had been nine active cases, 18 recoveries and one death as of July 24. Meanwhile, over 100 miles northwest of Fort Worth at the North Texas State Hospital in Wichita Falls there had been six active cases and 20 recoveries and at the nearby North Texas State Hospital in Vernon there had been one active case and one recovery among residents.

In May, Abbott directed HHSC to expand COVID-19 testing to all patients, residents and employees at state-run hospitals and living centers across the state.

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