Most Residents In This NC Nursing Home Have Coronavirus. Lawyers Plead For Intervention

Wednesday, April 29, 2020 | COVID-19 | Author: Michael Gordon | Original Article

Lawyers for residents of a Rowan County nursing home wracked by COVID-19 asked a court on Tuesday to review the facility’s policies on staffing and hygiene to guard against further neglect.

The request for court intervention is part of a new lawsuit filed against The Citadel Salisbury, home to the state’s worst nursing home cluster of the disease.

Inside the for-profit facility, 144 people have tested positive for the coronavirus illness, N.C. officials have said. Rowan County reports that 16 COVID-19 deaths have occurred at The Citadel.

Buttressed by new sworn statements by some of The Citadel’s residents and employees, the new complaint accuses the facility’s management, owners and corporate leaders of bungling the nursing home’s response to the disease, then attempting to hide the dimensions of the outbreak from their clients and staff.

According to the lawsuit, The Citadel “actively lied” to one family by telling them a resident had tested negative for COVID-19 when, in fact, the results had come back positive. The nursing home also lied to patients about whether they were even ill, the lawsuit claims.

The complaint includes multiple affidavits by desperate or grieving family members who say they tried for days to learn about the health of elderly loved ones but could not get The Citadel staff to return calls or even pick up the phone.

In their own sworn statements, residents of the facility — where, families say, private rooms cost up to $11,000 a month — complained of feces- and urine-stained showers.

Margaret Blackwell, a resident who says she left The Citadel after being hospitalized for eight days with COVID-19, said in her affidavit that nurses rarely wore masks and communal activities were allowed to continue even “when everyone was getting sick.”

The defendants include Citadel administrator Sherri Stoltzfus, and its corporate owner, Accordius Health of Englewood, N.J. Accordius owns almost 60 nursing homes, including several in the Charlotte area, court documents show.

Accordius CEO Kim Morrow of Bradenton, Fla., who is also named by the complaint, told the Observer on Tuesday that the Citadel Salisbury had emergency plans in place a month before the first case of COVID-19 surfaced in the facility.

“It is unfortunate that there has been so much misinformation put out by a source clearly not familiar with the facts of what’s been going on inside this building,” Morrow said. “We are devoting all of our resources to caring for our residents and ensuring our staff has the necessary equipment and resources. We will allow our lawyers to respond to the allegations that have been made.”

Multiple sworn statements, however, by residents, their loved ones and nursing home workers paint a portrait of fear, neglect and denial.

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Most Residents In This NC Nursing Home Have Coronavirus. Lawyers Plead For Intervention