Federal 'strike team' sent to Williamsville nursing home as 61 residents test positive for Covid-19

Oct. 22--A Williamsville nursing home experienced one of the country's biggest Covid-19 outbreaks to hit such a facility in recent weeks, prompting federal officials to send a "strike team" to the facility.

Thirty-four residents tested positive for Covid-19 at Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Nursing Center for the week ending Oct. 4. Only 17 other nursing homes out of more than 15,000 facilities nationwide had more confirmed cases that week, according to the statistics reported by nursing homes to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

A week later, another 27 residents tested positive for Covid-19 at Comprehensive Rehabilitation, making the facility the hardest hit in New York state for two consecutive weeks.

A total of 61 of the nursing home's approximately 114 residents tested positive during the two weeks, according to the federal statistics.

"The New York State Department of Health continues to actively respond to the situation at Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Nursing Center," said Jeffrey Hammond, a state Health Department spokesman, of an ongoing investigation into the facility.

State Health Department inspectors on Oct. 15 accompanied strike team members from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a visit to the facility at 147 Reist St., Hammond said.

He said he could not comment on the state's investigation, which started earlier this month. Details on the federal strike team's visit were also unavailable.

Hammond, however, pointed out that the Health Department previously fined the facility $14,000 for violations found during a "Covid-19" focused inspection on May 20.

The nursing home's administrator, Steve Hefter, and one of its co-owners, David Gast, did not return calls from The Buffalo News seeking comments on the outbreak.

The federal statistics also show Comprehensive Rehabilitation had 13 staff members test positive for the virus for the week ending Oct. 4, and another four workers test positive the following week.

Staffing issues at the nursing home were magnified by the coronavirus outbreak, according to the union representing approximately 100 workers at the facility.

"Our members at Comprehensive Rehabilitation are working very hard to provide care to the residents and protect themselves in a very difficult set of circumstances," said Todd Hobler, vice president of Local 1199 Service Employees International Union. "With a number of employees sick, staffing has become a problem."

The union is not alone in its concern over the outbreak.

"We have had such a hard time getting information from the facility on our mom who tested positive for Covid-19. This facility is right in the heart of Williamsville and there was no information about the cluster," said one relative, who contacted The Buffalo News out of concern for the lack of information.

He asked that his name be withheld to protect his mother's identity.

"I believe they have had more cases last week and we don't know when we will be able to get in for visits," the son said. "We had been able to do window visits and now we can't even do them."

The 61 confirmed cases of the virus among residents at Comprehensive Rehabilitation during the two-week period was more than any other nursing home in New York State, which has 613 facilities.

2nd Buffalo area home hit

During the week ending Oct. 4, Buffalo Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing had the second highest number of cases in the state, with 27 residents infected.

The federal government's nursing home comparison website ranks both nursing homes at one star, "much below average," for overall performance.

After testing revealed the outbreak at the Buffalo Center, infected residents were immediately "isolated" in the Delaware Avenue facility's Covid-19 wing with its own staff, according to Jeff Jacomowitz, the Buffalo Center's spokesman.

As of Wednesday, Jacomowitz said, there was only one resident with the virus at the facility. Since the pandemic started, he said, 125 Buffalo Center residents have recovered from the virus.

Thirteen Buffalo Center residents have died from Covid-19, and Comprehensive Rehabilitation has had eight deaths, according to the state Health Department's latest figures. Those numbers would not include any residents who died after being transferred from the nursing homes to other health care facilities for treatment.

According to the federal statistics, the 34 positive tests at Comprehensive Rehabilitation are not the most ever recorded in one week at a nursing home in the state.

The federal government began requiring nursing homes to report these statistics beginning with the week ending May 24. During the week ending June 14, a downstate nursing home in Flushing reported it had 58 residents confirmed with Covid-19 that week.

For most weeks since mid-July, however, New York state has had only one or two nursing homes that had more than 10 residents with new positive Covid-19 tests.

During two one-week periods this summer, no nursing homes in the state had more than 10 residents with new confirmed Covid-19 cases.

During the week of Oct. 4, five nursing homes in the state had more than 10 residents with new positive tests. The following week, two nursing homes had more than 10 residents test positive.

Erie County Health Department spokeswoman Kara Kane said that while her department does not have authority over nursing homes, it conducts contact tracing when a nursing home resident tests positive for the virus.

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