This story was originally published Dec. 16 and updated with more information Dec. 17.
MONROE — A resident at Pleasant View Nursing Home who tested positive for COVID-19 during an outbreak earlier this month died at the facility Dec. 13, and another round of positive cases among residents and staff is now triggering a "crisis staffing plan."
Terry Snow, administrator of the county-owned facility in Monroe, reported the resident's death and the nursing home's second outbreak this month in a Dec. 16 email to the Times.
She declined to talk by phone, explaining that Pleasant View staff "are spread in many directions right now."
"I am trying to be open about our situation here," she wrote, adding that "these are difficult times."
The resident who died had been in Pleasant View's COVID-19 isolation unit for 10 days. Snow said the resident had chronic medical conditions in addition to COVID-19 and the family received daily updates while staff members were bedside and providing comfort care.
The other eight residents who tested positive at the end of November are recovering and have returned to their apartments, Snow said. No one to date has been sent to the hospital. Staff members who tested positive in late November are also recovering.
A Dec. 8 investigation into the outbreak by a Wisconsin Department of Health surveyor resulted in no citations.
This week, however, the nursing home is experiencing another outbreak of the contagious coronavirus, with more residents and staff testing positive.
With additional staff out sick with COVID-19, Pleasant View reports it has initiated a "crisis staffing plan, calling upon others to assist us in the care for our residents," as remaining staff "work under difficult conditions with a heart of compassion and self-sacrifice."
Contact tracing to identify a source for the first outbreak was inconclusive. Snow reports some of the positive cases among staff were traced to a family member who was infected with the virus but not showing symptoms.
The coronavirus pandemic is still surging in the community in Wisconsin — and into nursing homes. In the nine months since Green County confirmed its first positive case of COVID-19, over 2,000 people countywide have tested positive and nine people have died, seven with confirmed COVID-19 and two with suspected COVID-19.
Wisconsin nursing homes have some of the highest COVID-19 death rates and cases in the country, as well as rising shortages of staff and personal protective equipment (PPE), according to an AARP analysis released Dec. 11.
Comparing the four weeks from Oct. 19 to Nov. 15 to the previous four-week period, the AARP analysis found the COVID-19 infection rate among residents increased threefold, the staff infection rate doubled and the death rate increased sevenfold. The number of Wisconsin nursing homes with staffing shortages increased from about 40% to nearly 50%.
Nursing home resident COVID-19 deaths reached 2.11 per 100 residents in Wisconsin in November, the highest since the federal government began collecting this information, the AARP reported.
The only states with higher nursing home death rates are South Dakota (4.82), Montana (3.12), Wyoming (2.95), North Dakota (2.58) and Arkansas (2.12). The AARP Public Policy Institute tracks this data.
"Nursing home residents remain in grave danger as the virus reenters nursing homes and other facilities at an alarming pace," AARP State Director Sam Wilson said in a statement.
At Pleasant View, residents with COVID-19 spend 10 days in isolation under the care of nursing staff, the medical director and personal physicians.
"Fighting this virus is very exhausting for anyone, especially for the elderly," the Dec. 16 Pleasant View press release stated. "The primary symptoms that we have observed are congestion (and) cough. Some experienced vomiting and diarrhea, and many did lose their sense of taste."
Even after their discharge from the COVID-19 isolation unit, residents are undergoing therapy treatments for strengthening and recovery.
Despite the precautions Pleasant View staff are taking, including PPE, rapid-result testing and daily screenings, "in congregate living one positive (case) quickly spreads, and we are unfortunately experiencing this despite all of our efforts."
'We'll be the first and second ones in line'
As the COVID-19 vaccines begin to roll out this week across the country, nursing homes are expected to receive their first doses later this month or in early January.
Walgreens will be dispensing the vaccine at Pleasant View, part of a private-public partnership at the federal level. The vaccine is not mandatory, however Pleasant View's medical team is encouraging "everyone at Pleasant View to examine the benefits, review the information and understand the impact that this vaccine can have on protecting all of us."
Many nursing homes in the area have had positive COVID-19 cases among employees, but few reported resident cases. Lafayette County Manor in Darlington reported no positive COVID-19 cases among its residents so far. A spokesperson for Monroe Health Services did not respond by deadline.
New Glarus Home Director of Nursing Patty Emberson said the facility has had no cases of COVID-19 among residents. As of Dec. 17, she said, no staff were positive at the nursing home.
"We have had six or seven employees since March that have (tested) positive," Emberson said in a phone call Dec. 17 alongside New Glarus Home Executive Director Erin Francois.
As at nursing homes everywhere, Emberson and Francois are eagerly awaiting the COVID-19 vaccine. With their medical director, they've started talking with staff and residents about the vaccine and assessing how receptive everyone is to getting vaccinated.
Among residents, Emberson and Francois anticipate a vaccination rate of 95% or higher.
Among staff, "there were very few flat-out 'no's," Emberson said. For those on the fence about the vaccine, "I think (they) just want more information."
Francois chimed in.
"We'll be the first and second ones in line to get the vaccination. I think it's important that as leadership we set the tone," she said.
One of the first goals as more and more people across the United States get the COVID-19 vaccination is to reunite residents with their families and allow them to hug again — and give everyone, staff included, a breather from the relentlessness of living through a pandemic.
"We're all looking forward to some light at the end of the tunnel," Francois said. "We've been running in flight-or-fight mode for months and months and months, almost a year."
