Some coronavirus patients moved to Huntersville nursing center, Atrium Health says
Atrium Health has announced plans to move some COVID-19 patients into isolation at a nursing home and rehab facility in Huntersville, as COVID-19 outbreaks at long-term care facilities in the county continue to rise.
Mecklenburg County public health Director Gibbie Harris said Monday there are eight long-term care facilities in “outbreak status” in the county, meaning each facility has at least two confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Atrium says some residents of long-term care facilities or nursing homes who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus illness may be moved temporarily to Huntersville Oaks, a skilled nursing facility about 15 miles north of Charlotte off Interstate 77.
The policy is in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released in early April.
The CDC and CMS recommend long-term care facilities use separate staffing teams for COVID-19 patients and designate a separate facility or “units within a facility” to separate non-coronavirus patients and COVID-19 patients.
The unit housing COVID-19 patients at Huntersville Oaks has a separate air-handling system, according to Atrium. That means air circulated in COVID-19 patients’ rooms won’t be re-circulated through non-coronavirus patients’ rooms.
Most of the rooms being used for COVID-19 patients are individual rooms with private baths and showers, according to Atrium. The hospital says the isolated unit at its Huntersville rehab center is one of many steps Atrium officials are taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19 inside nursing facilities it operates locally.
Atrium has also restricted visitors, established separate entrances, suspended communal activities and requires anyone entering the facilities — including employees — to undergo a screening that includes temperature checks.
“We recognize that our nursing facility patients are among our most fragile and we are making every effort to look out for them as we would members of our own family,” Atrium said in a statement.
On Friday, Mecklenburg County released a list of seven long-term or nursing facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks. That list included Huntersville Oaks. But according to Atrium’s statement, that’s because the hospital system had made the “strategic decision” to house nursing facility patients with COVID-19 “under one roof.”
Now Mecklenburg has eight facilities with outbreaks, Harris said Monday afternoon. She didn’t identify the newest outbreak and wouldn’t release the number of COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities.
Harris said the county is working with those facilities to make sure they have enough personal protective equipment and praised workers at long-term care facilities.
“They’re going to work every day, potentially exposing themselves, and then going home to their families,” Haris said. “So I want to recognize their sacrifice and the work that they’re doing.”
On Saturday, Huntersville Oaks Center administrator Linden Scotland sent an email to Huntersville Oaks residents’ families, explaining the decision and noting any residents with symptoms would be tested.
Atrium, Charlotte’s biggest hospital system, is one of the only health care systems in the state with in-house testing capabilities. Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, shortness of breath and loss of taste or smell.
The Huntersville facility treats short-term nursing and rehabilitation patients, as well as long-term care and end-of-life patients.
In the email to families, Scotland noted some patients may be able to move to their families homes during the COVID-19 outbreak, adding: “We would be happy to explore that option with you.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified two nursing homes in the Charlotte area as Atrium owned. The incorrect information was removed April 29, 2020.
This story was originally published April 20, 2020 at 1:06 PM.
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