6 have died from coronavirus at Woodland nursing facility, Yolo County officials say
At least six residents have died from a coronavirus outbreak at a Woodland nursing facility, among 64 combined residents and staff members at the site who have tested positive for COVID-19 so far, Yolo County officials said Tuesday.
Stollwood Convalescent Hospital, located within St. John’s Retirement Village on Woodland Avenue, is the site of Yolo County’s first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, reported to the public last Monday in a statement by the county that did not reveal the facility’s name.
All residents and staff at the nursing home have since been tested, and results continue to come in from testing labs, county officials said in a news release issued Tuesday evening. They said 31 residents and 33 employees at the nursing facility have contracted COVID-19. Six of the employees infected live outside the county, and confirmed cases are tracked by a person’s county of residence.
“The loss of life associated with this outbreak is a devastating moment for our community,” Yolo County public health officer Dr. Ron Chapman said in the news release. “We must acknowledge the suffering of family and friends at this time, who not only lost a loved one, but were unable to be at that individual’s bedside due to the risk of exposure to illness.”
Yolo County issued an order on March 13 for all nursing homes to restrict visitors and non-essential personnel.
Chapman also said fear and uncertainty continues for those infected who must remain in isolation, but “heroic work is occurring to care for and respond to the needs of staff, residents and families at the facility.”
The outbreak has reduced the number of available staff who can work at the facility. Staff from emergency medical services, County Public Health and out-of-county healthcare workers were brought to the nursing facility to work alongside staff there to care for the residents, county officials said.
Community members, including local restaurants and Dignity Health have provided meals for the nursing facility because its kitchen was closed after the outbreak.
At Tuesday morning’s Board of Supervisors meeting during, Chapman reported that 30 residents and 31 staff members at Stollwood had tested positive for the virus so far, and that six of those residents have died, as first reported by the Davis Enterprise. The meeting was held virtually as a Zoom teleconference, open to the public.
Those who have tested positive at the Stollwood facility have been isolated, county officials said, and facility staff and residents are being closely monitored. All residents and their families have been notified of the outbreak, and Stollwood has implemented new measures to help prevent the COVID-19 spread, including:
- All staff are required to be screened for COVID-19 symptoms before starting a work shift, and their temperatures are taken before and after a shift.
- Anyone with symptoms is immediately isolated.
- Contact investigations are launched for all confirmed cases, and potential contacts are quarantined.
- Staff are supplied with personal protective equipment, and they have been trained on how to use the equipment.
- Authorities have gone through the facility to determine ways to improve social distancing.
- A family home line has been set up to connect patients with their families.
County officials publicly announced early last week that a nursing facility in Woodland had experienced the county’s first known outbreak at a nursing home, in which 23 residents and 12 staffers had originally tested positive and with one resident death initially reported.
The county did not originally disclose the name of the facility, but its identity was identified by information posted to the St. John’s website and confirmed as part of a list released Friday night by the state, which gave COVID-19 case numbers for outbreaks at skilled nursing facilities throughout California. By that time, 31 staffers and 24 residents had tested positive at the Woodland facility. The state list did not include death totals.
In addition to the Stollwood outbreak, county officials said one case of COVID-19 has been confirmed in a resident of the Californian Assisted Living and Dementia Care facility, which also is in Woodland. This resident was transferred to Stollwood since that facility already had resources in place with care plans and infection control measures for COVID 19 patients.
County officials said that as of Tuesday evening, the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, had not spread to other residents or staff at the Californian facility. County public health officials have been working closely with staff at that facility to isolate and test anyone with symptoms.
The county will soon launch a new online dashboard to provide data on long term care facilities with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, according to the news release. This dashboard will provide a breakdown of the total number of confirmed cases by outbreak location.
“While the long term care facility numbers are devastating, the number of COVID-19 cases in the community remains low, and the healthcare system continues to have full capacity to care for sick people,” Chapman said in the news release. “This is heartening, and is a direct result of the public’s efforts to socially distance and shelter in place.”
Yolo County as of Tuesday afternoon had reported 10 deaths and 146 confirmed cases throughout the county, according to its public health department website. The first death reported at Stollwood is among those 10, county spokeswoman Jenny Tan said last week, but it is unclear how many, if any, of the remaining five fatalities are included in that figure.
The county dashboard showed 74 of Yolo County’s 146 confirmed infections being reported in Woodland, but the deaths have not been broken down by city. Yolo County updates its COVID-19 numbers daily by 5 p.m., according to its website.
What to know about Stollwood at St. John’s Retirement Village
According to its website, St. John’s Retirement Village houses more than 150 seniors among 13 cottages, 14 standard apartments, 32 “Personal Care Unit” apartments, 32 additional rooms dedicated to those with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, in addition to its 48-bed Stollwood Convalescent Hospital.
Thirty residents testing positive would therefore represent close to two-thirds of Stollwood’s capacity.
In a Thursday update to the St. John’s website, the facility wrote that it was “testing all employees and Stollwood residents for COVID-19,” had set up two “isolation wings” for those who test positive and that Yolo County was assisting by providing “contact investigations/tracing for any confirmed cases.” Last Friday morning, Tan confirmed that the county is only aware of one nursing facility outbreak at this time.
Stollwood is licensed as a skilled nursing facility, according to the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development website.
A recent Sacramento Bee review of state and federal records show that California inspectors have cited 18 nursing homes throughout the state for serious violations of infectious disease rules that put residents in “immediate jeopardy.”
But Stollwood was not among those worst offenders. In fact, its track record appears very solid: Medicare.gov rates the overall quality of the convalescent hospital a perfect five stars, “much above average,” with a four-star, above-average health inspection rating as well.
A Bee review of inspection reports for the convalescent hospital found that the only infection-relevant violation at Stollwood appears to have come in October 2018, when an inspector noticed low-level problems with hand-washing. The facility has received just four health citations, compared with a statewide average of 13.1. All were considered minor and none resulted in fines.
About one-third of elder-care homes in California have reported coronavirus cases, The Sacramento Bee reported last Friday.
In an earlier COVID-19 update, on April 6, St. John’s posted that it was restricting visitors to only essential health personnel; instituting social distancing of six feet; suspending group dining and other activities; and taking residents’ temperatures daily, as well as staff members’ temperatures upon arrival to and departure from each shift.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 1:49 PM.
