Thomas Breen photos
Scenes from Friday’s emergency medical response at RegalCare.
A half-dozen firefighters, paramedics, and ambulance drivers were back Friday at the RegalCare nursing home, which has emerged as one of New Haven’s Covid-19 hotspots where 17 people have already tested positive and workers and families worry that lives are being put at risk.
According to city and state health department records, RegalCare is one of four New Haven nursing homes to experience a spike in novel coronavirus cases in recent weeks.
Donning face masks, gloves, and full-body protective gowns, the emergency responders Friday pushed a stretcher in through the front door of the local nursing home, where management says the pandemic is under control, some staff warn of dangerous working and living conditions, and family members fear that their loved ones inside are at risk.
That medical emergency response took place just before 12:30 p.m. Friday at RegalCare at New Haven, a three-story, 150-bed short-term rehab and long-term nursing home located at 181 Clifton St. in Fair Haven Heights.
New Have Fire Department Engine 17 showed up for the call, as did a city fire department paramedic unit, an American Medical Response (AMR) ambulance, and East Battalion Chief 33.
Firefighters on the scene said they could not confirm whether or not the call was coronavirus-related or not as the first responders helped lift an elderly resident on a stretcher into the back of the ambulance.
“I’m not sure, but I think it’s Covid-19,” said one firefighter. Fire Chief John Alston later told the Independent that the elderly resident was not yet confirmed positive or negative for Covid-19.
“Every call we get, we treat like a Covid call,” said another firefighter on the scene. That’s just the new normal for the department — replete with donning and doffing the heavy black face masks, hooded white plastic gowns, and blue rubber gloves that insulate the emergency responders from potential exposure.
On Thursday afternoon, city spokesperson Gage Frank and city Health Director Maritza Bond provided the Independent with a nursing home report indicating that 12 residents and five staff at RegalCare at New Haven have tested positive for Covid-19 so far.
That report stated that seven of the infected patients are still residing at the facility, five have been hospitalized, and no one has died from their illness.
The city’s numbers for some other nursing homes in the area are even higher: Yale New Haven Hospital’s Grimes Center had 54 Covid-positive residents and 18 positive staff, according to the nursing count. Fair Haven’s Mary Wade Home had a total of 26 positive residents and 7 positive staff.
In the front parking lot of the nursing home Friday, a RegalCare office manager who gave her name as Mel and a RegalCare health care manager who did not give her name said that conditions inside of the facility are safe during this present crisis.
Mel said that the staff are treated with respect, with management hosting a “nice breakfast” and a “huge luncheon” for employees. She said that conditions inside are calm and well-cared for, and that management has the public health crisis under control at the facility.
The health care manager said that nurses do not work more than eight-hour shifts. The manager said Covid-positive residents who do not require hospitalization are carefully separated on the third floor from patients who have not tested positive for Covid. Staff have adequate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks, gloves, and gowns, the manager claimed.
The manager was surprised when this reporter said that some staff have complained about the exact opposite being the case. Mel kindly asked this reporter not to talk to any staff, residents, or family members as they entered or exited the building.
“Terrible” Conditions Inside
A RegalCare maintenance worker who spoke to the Independent on the condition of anonymity Friday afternoon described the conditions inside as “terrible.”
“They don’t understand what’s going on,” he said about management’s response to the crisis.
The worker said maintenance and health care staff do not have enough access to PPE, which is stored in the basement and not readily accessible to the nurses working on the third floor, where the Covid-positive residents reside.
“Thank God I have enough from before” the outbreak in March, he said, pointing to his own tightly fitting mask.
He said that as hard-working as staff is, Covid-positive patients still manage to interact with non-Covid-positive residents, putting others at risk. “They should all be put on the same hall,” the janitor said.
“I Hope I Can Bring Him Home Alive”
A family member of a RegalCare resident who also asked to speak anonymously said Friday that she is very concerned about her husband, who resides on the third floor and has dementia.
“I hope I can bring him home alive,” she said through tears. She said she brings him clean clothes just about every day.
“The nurses here are very sweet, and very, very good,” she said in praise of the staff. But when she gets home and turns on the television and sees dozens of dead bodies at nursing homes in New Jersey and in Colorado, she worries her husband might suffer the same fate.
“It’s Chaos Here”
A nurse at the facility who also asked to speak on the condition of anonymity offered the most damning assessment of RegalCare.
The nurse said the number of positive cases are even higher than those officially reported. Some nurses (including this one) are working 16-hour double shifts to make up for staff who have called out sick with 100-degree-plus fevers, the employee reported. Nurses are being asked to reuse the same N95 respirator mask for 50 days straight, with each mask collected and cleaned by management at the end of each shift, according to this employee.
The employee said that two nurses have to look after roughly 60 patients on a single floor. For the overnight shift, only one nurse is on duty.
“The volume of work on this floor is too heavy,” they said. “It’s just too much work.”
The nurse said that staff have spoken to management about this problem, but that management has been dismissive.
“We feel like we’re not getting enough support on this floor,” they said. “We never see the administration. They’re adding more work even though we told them four months ago that we need help.”
The nurse said that a serious case of the flu swept through the nursing home at the beginning of the year; many residents came down with the illness and had pretty severe symptoms. Looking back, the nurse said, they suspect it was Covid-19.
The employee said that during the Covid-19 outbreak in March and April, nurses have been doing roughly triple the amount of work they would normally do — between medication distribution, paperwork they have to fill out, administering bandages and IVs and feeding tubes, and monitoring the Covid-positive patients to make sure they are isolated and do not interact with those who have tested negative or are still pending results.
“All of them are now on one hallway,” the nurse said about the positive patients. “But that hallway still has other rooms with people that are not positive.”
The nurse recounted having to tell a non-Covid positive patient the other night to come out of the room of a positive patient.
“It’s chaos here,” they said. “A lot of them are wandering all over.”
The nurse hasn’t been tested for Covid-19 yet, and strongly expects exposure. Nurses get their temperatures checked every day before they come inside the building.
They also have surgical gowns, but a limited supply.
“We’ve overwhelmed,” the nurse said. “We’re scared. We’re tired. Just doing eight hours on this floor under normal circumstances without the Covid-19 outbreak is extremely taxing. This is a high volume floor without a lot of support.”
The nurse said the only good thing about management’s response to the crisis is that nurses are getting hazard pay. “But hazard pay means nothing,” they said, “if you get sick and die.”
“A Herculean Effort”
Amitai Dagan, vice-president of marketing for the Waterbury-based company that owns the nursing home, RegalCare/TSM Healthcare, sent the Independent the following response Friday afternoon:
“RegalCare is navigating the COVID-19 pandemic according to the strict guidelines on the CDC and DPH. COVID 19 targets a specific demographic — our senior population. A nursing home is where hospitals discharge the sick to and it’s where the frail and elderly come to receive the next level care they are in need of. A nursing home is a sacred place that needs to be protected, where staff are giving a heroic effort every single day to care for the most fragile individuals.
“Our facility is adequately stocked with PPE for all staff. Our primary goal has been and always will be protecting our staff and patients. We are following the strict guidelines set forth by the CDC and DPH on all fronts.
“Our patients that have been exposed to, or have tested positive are quarantined together on one unit and are NOT circulating throughout the facility.
“It is certainly a trying and difficult time for our industry. Our staff, and fellow nursing homes as well, deserve a tremendous thanks and appreciation — and nothing less. If you were to randomly ask any employee of any nursing home today — most would tell you they are overworked. That is because everyone in every department is putting in a herculean effort to protect these most vulnerable patients.
“What the community, and the world, now needs are stories to build spirits, create unity and strength and celebrate the heroic efforts. If you need some content in that area, RegalCare has so much to share that would be our pleasure to see in print. We have been running individualized recreation activities at the bedside, FaceTime calls for all patients with loved ones they can’t have visit, Mister Softee truck come deliver ice cream to staff and patients, signage in front of each building highlighting Heroes Work Here and so much more.”