Silver Bluff nursing home suffers severe COVID outbreak

Nursing home outbreak: ‘What we really feared’

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT Patrick Johnson, public health director S TAFF WRITER for Haywood County, acknowledged how

Despite seemingly doing everything dangerous coronavirus can be in such setright, a long-term care facility in tings. Haywood County is now reporting 36 “When the virus gets into a long-term cases of COVID-19, spread among residents care facility, that population is already in and staff. the high-risk category,” Johnson said.

“It’s awful. Since the 1990s, North “We’ve seen this in Buncombe, Henderson, Carolina has been ahead of the curve as far and nationwide. Silver Bluff worked hard to as infection control. Since Since July 13, Silver Bluff Village has seen 16 the 1990s you residents and 20 staff test positive for COVID-19. had to have at Cory Vaillancourt photo least one nurse trained in epidemiology,” said Lisa Leatherwood, administrator of Silver Bluff Village. “We have three. We implemented visiting restrictions, had state regulators visit, we tested every single person who comes in.” prevent this. We’ve been pleased with what

Still, the virus made it into the facility. they’ve done.”

“Silver Bluff was doing everything they Silver Bluff Village was founded in 1962 could do correctly ahead of this, and yet by Leatherwood’s grandparents; before this has still happened,” said Dr. Mark serving as administrator, she was the direcJaben, Haywood County’s health and tor of nursing for 30 years, beginning in human services medical director. “That 1987. Leatherwood’s mother was adminisreminds us that you don’t want to mess trator until Leatherwood’s husband took with this, because once it gets in it’s very the post, retiring in 2017. hard to contain.” The facility, near Bethel, contains sever

Leatherwood said that 85 staff members al different buildings including a skilled had been tested when Haywood County building, an assisted living building, and a conducted a mass test back in April, all negmulti-unit assisted housing unit. In total, ative. Further testing took place in May, and there’s capacity for about 196 residents, all regular screenings thereafter, but the facility with varying degrees of independence. reported its first case July 13. Leatherwood said the facility did receive

“Just in terms of disinfecting they’ve some funding from the CARES Act’s been fastidious about that,” Jaben said. Paycheck Protection Program, which was “And in screening staff. They’ve not had vishelpful in trying to keep staffing levels up. itors since very early in this thing. What “We had quite a few [staff members makes this maybe larger than others is quit] when COVID first hit North Carolina, you’ve got a confined group of people in a but when we got hit, we had a few more closed space. I think the other thing it walk out,” she said. “The ones that are here, points out is the contagiousness in the prethey are very dedicated.” symptomatic stage. It’s a real eye-opener.” Employee screening continues, and

Suspect dead, deputy shot near Canton

A Haywood County deputy is recovering from surgery and a suspect is dead following an incident July 28 in which the suspect fired at officers responding to the call.

Officers with the Haywood County Sherriff’s Office and the Canton Police Department responded to a report of a disturbance involving a person armed with a rifle on the Old Asheville Highway near Canton. When the officers arrived, the subject began to fire.

The suspect was killed during the exchange after firing a bullet that struck Deputy Sheriff Eric Batchelor, who was then transported to a local hospital. Batchelor came through surgery successfully and is in stable condition.

As is policy in the case of an officer-involved shooting, the N.C. State Bureau of Investigations is now conducting an investigation into the incident. Leatherwood’s been giving them hazard pay as well, but PPP funding also helped her find personal protective equipment, which Leatherwood said became scarce and shot up in price once the pandemic began in earnest.

Since the outbreak began at Silver Bluff, quarantine and isolation wings were established, and some staff members were assigned to care for people in them, to reduce the number of people coming in and out of the wings.

Test result returns have also slowed in recent weeks, with the two-day turnaround seen in May and June now longer, at five to seven days.

That makes it harder to identify people in the pre-symptomatic phase of coronavirus infection, meaning they can transmit the virus before knowing they even have it.

“The way it gets in is by staff, not on purpose,” Johnson said. “I think one employee brought it in early on after going on vacation and getting exposed.”

Johnson’s advice to staff at Silver Bluff — and any other congregate living facility — is to exercise extreme caution in off-duty behaviors.

“Be diligent to avoid bringing it in,” he said. “Don’t attend gatherings, avoid crowds. If leaving the county, be very careful. Although many people right before the start of school like to go on vacation, this might be a good time for a stay-cation. Throughout all the contact tracing we’ve been doing, we’ve been hearing words like Pigeon Forge, Hilton Head, Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Florida.”

Johnson said other skilled nursing facilities and congregate living facilities are at risk for the same type of outbreak.

“This will be the same thing in schools — a parent will get it and give it to their kids, who will bring it into school,” he said. “If everybody’s interested in keeping students and staff safe, this might be a good time to skip the vacation.”

Jaben also commended Silver Bluff for their transparency.

“They’ve been very straight with people, and that’s what we should be doing with this,” Jaben said. “Just the facts.”

The takeaway, according to Jaben, is that even with responsible, cautious behavior, infection is still possible.

“All the public health recommendations are really a package of actions,” he said. “They all come together. Doing one or the other doesn’t reduce your risk as much as doing all of them together. Even doing all of them doesn’t eliminate the risk.”

Leatherwood said she’s grateful for the community’s support and understanding during the outbreak.

“What keeps me going is our residents and staff,” she said. “Our families have been wonderful, their comments like, ‘we trust you,’ that means the world. When you’ve worked a full shift in PPE and you come home and see on Facebook that someone’s posted a positive comment, it just means the world. We’re going to do everything possible to get through this and get things back to normal.”

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