Brighton nursing home put majority of residents in ‘immediate jeopardy’ amid covid-19 outbreak, state survey says

Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center put a majority of its hundreds of residents in “immediate jeopardy” and potentially exposed healthy residents to covid-19 as recently as early May, records show.

State health inspectors cited the already-embattled Beaver County nursing home for more than four dozen violations related to improper infection control, insufficient staff training and ineffective management, based on in-person surveying and interviews conducted May 1-5.

The findings — made public by the Department of Health this week — provide a glimpse into the situation at the Brighton facility about a week before the state sent the National Guard to assist and federal inspectors arrived to investigate why at least 80 residents there have died of covid-19 since late March.

Among violations cited: equipment was not properly cleaned and disinfected; staff failed to wear masks and wash hands; and dirty laundry and linens were not stored or handled properly. At least 17 nurse aides had not received training in infection control in more than a year of working at Brighton, which inspectors confirmed by inspecting records and interviewing staff and supervisors.

Health department spokesman Nate Wardle said the temporary manager overseeing Brighton, N.J.-based Allaire Health Services, did not take over the facility until May 11. The new management will be responsible for carrying out the corrective plans submitted by previous administrators.

“In any instance where a staff member may have gone outside of proper protocols, leadership works to immediately correct the staff and ensure compliance,” said a statement by email attributed to the newly installed Brighton facility management. “While this unprecedented crisis is not yet over, we are proud of the progress we have made to date and will fight tirelessly to keep this virus eradicated from our facility.”

In one instance observed by an inspector, a nurse aide left the room of a covid-19 patient with a half-filled bed pan, took it to a utility room to empty it, then returned to check the covid-19 patient’s temperature using a temporal thermometer that slides across the forehead and used a pulse oximeter that encloses around the patient’s finger tip. The same aide then went to the room of a patient who did not have covid-19 and took the person’s temperature and oxygenation level — without removing her gloves, washing her hands or cleaning the medical equipment, according to the report.

In another flagged item, Brighton staff were cited for failing to administer medication as outlined in a resident’s medical plan. The resident reported that “she was unable to take her medications due to not having anything to drink,” the survey found.

Other observations cited include:

• In the main entrance, an inspector saw an unmasked receptionist eating a meal and not keeping six feet of social distance from two other staffers.

• A patient restroom in the Four Main North unit had no paper towels. A single cloth towel hung on a hook next to the sink, “with its ends draped against a garbage can,” the survey said.

• Dirty gloves and soiled towels lay in the sinks and floors of some patient rooms. Hampers of dirty as well as clean linens stood uncovered in hallways. Utility rooms had empty soap dispensers and no paper towels.

• In multiple patient rooms, spilled food splattered across the floor alongside used gloves and overflowing waste baskets.

• A medication cart in the Four South unit did not have the proper supplies to clean its glucometer, a tool used to measure glucose in residents with diabetes. A staff member was observed using it without changing gloves or washing their hands.

The survey was completed nearly a month after Brighton became known for grappling with one of the nation’s largest coronavirus outbreaks at a long-term care facility. Management said it was operating on the assumption that all of the nursing home’s more than 400 residents had the virus as of April 7.

State records, which were updated June 10, cite at least 332 cases of covid-19 among 334 residents, and 108 cases among employees.

Five residents and 10 staff members still had an “active covid-19 infection” as of last week, according to a letter obtained by the Tribune-Review that management sent to residents, staff and family members.

“Designated staff attend to these (infected) individuals, and do not rotate through non-COVID units,” states a June 12 letter signed by Allaire’s management team. “We continue to provide daily education to staff on hand hygiene, PPE (personal protective equipment) use and disinfection of equipment. Visitor restrictions remain in place.”

As of Friday, there no longer were “active cases among our residents,” management told the Tribune-Review by email.

“This is a credit to the tremendous efforts and expert care provided by our staff over the past several months,” management’s statement said.

Brighton management received notice of the “immediate jeopardy” status shortly before 5 p.m. May 2 and submitted a corrective action plan that was approved less than six hours later. The plan included retraining staff members on infection control and equipment use procedures as well as frequent internal audits to ensure such violations do not continue.

The state lifted the sanction — which can carry steep fines each day it continues — at 4 p.m. May 5 after conducting another inspection and determining the corrective plan was being implemented, according to the survey.

“The department will conduct a follow-up survey in the future, unannounced, to ensure that the plan of correction is being followed,” Wardle said.

Separately, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced a federal investigation into Brighton during a trip to Beaver County on May 29. The findings still are under review by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Newly imposed federal fines, which currently stand at $62,580, could increase as the investigation is finalized, officials said.

A similar federal investigation was launched at a Kirkland, Wash., nursing home linked to 40 covid-19 deaths.

Staff writer Jamie Martines contributed. Natasha Lindstrom is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Natasha at 412-380-8514, nlindstrom@triblive.com or via Twitter @NewsNatasha. You can contact Jamie at 724-850-2867, jmartines@triblive.com or via Twitter @Jamie_Martines.