A Connecticut nursing home supervisor could be facing charges of criminal conduct in connection with working without a mask despite knowingly being exposed to COVID-19.
Days later, after working in spite of knowing she was exposed, the staff member tested positive for the disease and an outbreak occurred at the facility. The operator also has come under fire for allegedly not following emergency procedures such as cohorting infected or suspected patients.
“Someone knowingly going into a facility, not feeling well and then going maskless is reckless behavior that endangered the lives of residents and led to this tragic situation,” Mairead Painter, a state long-term care ombudsman, told the Hartford Courant news outlet.
An investigation by the state’s department of public health at Three Rivers Healthcare in Norwich, CT, was ongoing at press time. Officials so far have learned that the employee at the center of the probe was the facility’s supervising nurse, who came to work in late July even though two of her family members were awaiting test results.
Multiple workers told the agency that they saw the nurse working without a mask during a shift on July 24. She also told them about her symptomatic family members and that she wasn’t feeling well, according to the news report.
Five employees and 22 residents had tested positive for the disease overall, as of presstime, since early August. An ombudsman complaint against the home facility is being considered for the way it handled the outbreak.
“We are looking at all of our options to hold individuals responsible for their action,” Painter added. “I do feel that this clearly rises to the level of an elderly abuse issue.”
From the October 2020 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
