Modesto nursing home has coronavirus outbreak. The same company owns Turlock center.
Vintage Faire Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, a sister facility of a coronavirus-stricken nursing home in Turlock, is reporting cases of COVID-19 among residents, and one patient has died.
In a notice dated Sunday, Vintage Faire said six residents have tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. No information was released on the patient’s death or when it occurred.
“We join with the resident’s family in mourning the loss of their loved one,” the nursing home said. The center is in the 3600 block of Dale Road in northwest Modesto.
Vintage Faire is owned by Covenant Care of Aliso Viejo, the same company that owns Turlock Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Turlock. At the Turlock center, the site of the largest and deadliest coronavirus outbreak in Stanislaus County, 101 residents and 55 staff members have tested positive and 18 patients have died.
Vintage Faire’s administrator did not return a request for comment from The Modesto Bee or issue a separate statement.
According to the notice posted on the facility’s website, all other residents and employees at Vintage Faire, which has 99 beds, have been tested and none of those tests were positive.
Vintage Faire has implemented additional safety measures including monitoring residents for symptoms, screening staff and medical personnel before they enter the facility and use of personal protective equipment.
The notice says a separate area is designated “for the admission of new residents, where they can be closely monitored for any signs or symptoms associated with the virus prior to being assigned to their room.”
Other measures include extensive cleaning and sanitation at the nursing home. Vintage Faire said it is working with and following the guidance of the state and local health departments, and also following advice from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Long-term care facilities are still vulnerable to coronavirus outbreaks as portions of the economy are reopened in Stanislaus County and the rest of the state.
Saturday, family members of residents at English Oaks Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Modesto were notified by an automated phone call of one new case at the West Rumble Road facility. The message said the patient tested positive after being readmitted to English Oaks and the person was being monitored for symptoms.
Deanna Hill, administrator for English Oaks, said in an email Monday the patient is being treated in an isolated area with dedicated staff. She cited patient confidentiality rules in not releasing any additional information about the resident.
Hill’s statement also reported the death of a patient who tested positive for coronavirus in March. “This resident was a recent admission who came to English Oaks with significant health issues,” her email said. “The resident started showing symptoms shortly after admission, making us believe this patient was infected prior to coming to English Oaks.”
Hill said the nursing home is adhering to infectious disease policies and procedures recommended by the state and CDC to prevent the spread of COVID-19 illness.
Stanislaus health officer provides details
Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, county health officer, said a Vintage Faire patient, who had been newly admitted, became ill and tested positive May 20. A county health order requires newly admitted patients at nursing homes to be placed in a designated quarantine area for 14 days.
Vaishampayan said in a first round of testing for everyone in that Vintage Faire unit, the results were negative. But five other patients were positive in a second round of tests.
Test results are still pending for some health care workers at the facility. The county did not release information on the deceased patient.
“I think it was caught early,” Vaishampayan said. The health officer pointed out a larger number of people at the Turlock center were infected initially before that outbreak was discovered, making it difficult to contain.
Covenant Care owns 30 healthcare and rehabilitation centers, including one facility each in Stockton and Lodi. Vaishampayan said she wasn’t aware of Covenant Care employees working at both the Turlock and Modesto centers.
Healthcare workers with jobs at multiple facilities is sometimes the cause of infectious disease spread among nursing homes.
“We strongly discourage people working at more than one facility,” Vaishampayan said. “I don’t know that that happened.”
Nursing home has history of violations
Vintage Fair Nursing and Rehabilitation has an average rating from Medicare’s Nursing Home Compare program, with a below average review for health inspections and staffing. The facility is rated well above average for quality measures.
Five years ago, the center had a 2-star below average rating and was the focus of multiple state regulatory investigations, resulting in a $12,740 fine assessed by the California Department of Public Health. The violations including improper patient transfers were the subject of a reporting project between The Modesto Bee and the California Health Care Foundation Center for Health Reporting.
In May 2015, an investigation found the nursing home failed to administer prescribed medications for patients who had serious health conditions including blood infections, epilepsy, heart arrhythmia and breathing problems. In some cases, the center ran out of medications because nurses failed to reorder drugs from a pharmacy service.
State investigations into complaints resulted in three other reports that year requiring the facility to correct problems including poor infection control.
In a July 2015 report, the state looked into family member complaints about employees not responding to patients’ calls for assistance. In one substantiated complaint, a family said a loved one was left on a bed pan multiple times for more than an hour. The investigation also found that staff members told two patients to “go in the bed” when patients asked for assistance with toileting.
Vintage Faire promised in a correction plan to train employees in proper response to patient call lights.
The facility has since improved its overall rating. It was told to correct 11 federal deficiencies in 2018. Regulators last year substantiated one patient safety complaint and ordered corrections, while three other complaints were substantiated without deficiencies.
In January and February of this year, four complaints against Vintage Faire were found to be unsubstantiated and a patient safety complaint was substantiated without deficiencies.
Turlock Nursing and Rehabilitation Center has an average rating from the Nursing Home Compare program.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 2:01 PM.
