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Two long-term care facilities in Manatee County reported more than 100 COVID-19 cases

Two long-term care facilities in Manatee County report more than 100 COVID-19 cases

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Community News, Manatee County.

MANATEE COUNTY – Two nursing homes in Manatee County owned by the same company accounted for more than 100 reported COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, April 21, according to Dr. Jennifer Bencie.

Bencie is the County Health Officer for the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) in Manatee County and she shared this information with county commissioners on Tuesday.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Bencie said 14 of Manatee County’s 33 COVID-19 deaths at that time were “directly related to the nursing homes.”

She also said there were eight nursing homes in the county at the time that reported at least one COVID-19 case with a resident or staff member.

As of Saturday morning, nine long-term care facilities in Manatee County reported 179 COVID-19 cases and 18 COVID-19-connected deaths. Manatee County ranked fourth highest in the state in long-term care facility cases and deaths. Only Miami-Dade County, Broward County and Palm Beach County had more. Sarasota County ranked 13th, with 56 reported cases and 14 reported long-term care facility deaths.

“To date, there have been 356 long-term care facilities associated with positive cases of COVID-19. Of the 2,748 cases of residents or staff in long-term care facilities, 299 have died,” according to FDOH’s Saturday morning email update.

Saturday’s FDOH update included a link to an updated eight-page list of COVID-19 positive long-term care facilities in Florida. That list now includes a ninth facility in Manatee County: The Cottages of Bradenton, an assisted living and memory care center that was not among the first eight facilities in Manatee County named in the initial list released Saturday, April 18.

The facilities list does not distinguish among residents, patients and staff members and does not specify how many cases are associated with any particular facility.

Bencie’s report

On Tuesday, Bencie said about three weeks ago she became aware of two large nursing homes in Manatee County that were owned by the same company, had a shared capacity of 328 beds and had 103 residents and staff members who tested positive for COVID-19.

“They were owned by the same company. The company took it upon themselves to test all of the staff and clients when they started seeing the uptick. Getting those tests back in the last week, 66 residents and 37 staff in those two facilities were positive,” Bencie said.

“Not only were those staff members working in both facilities, but also going out into other facilities where we’ve since learned other persons have been testing positive. We had actually had to serve a forced (quarantine) order against one of the employees who knowingly went to another facility and persons became positive,” Bencie said.

Bencie said because those two facilities saw so much COVID-19 activity, the health department immediately submitted a mission request to the state that resulted in the arrival of a three-nurse assessment team.

“Unfortunately, they were only here for three days because they were pushed to the east coast. We received eight nurses on Easter morning and they have been with us ever since, going initially into these two facilities, doing assessments, making recommendations, making changes and also moving into the other six facilities that we know have at least one case,” Bencie said.

“Visitors were not allowed to come into these facilities for more than a month now. So, we need to keep an eye on the staff. They’re the ones who are bringing it in. We have made sure they take temperatures every morning of all the employees coming in. We’re hoping we’re catching people who do develop symptoms before they get in and start assisting with the patients,” Bencie said.

Bencie said she also refers to nursing homes and other similar facilities as skilled nursing facilities or SNFs.

“Because there are 321 SNFs in Florida currently with at least one positive case, the governor has allowed us to have the National Guard come in and test in SNFs that need further attention. We have put a request in for National Guard to come and test the six sites and many others. We have about 45 facilities we’re tracking in the county to do testing. We hope that they will come in soon,” Bencie said.

Bencie said she has seven nurses who were previously working in schools that now make daily calls to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, Hospice facilities and dialysis centers to monitor those case numbers and needs.

On Thursday, The Sun emailed Bencie and several Manatee County officials seeking the names of the two facilities that Bencie said produced 103 positive test results, and the name of the individual she said received an involuntary order.

Later that day, The Sun received an email from the county records division that said, “The Department of Health is the appropriate entity to respond to this request.” That email recommended contacting Beverly Diehr, who serves as chief counsel for the FDOH.

As of Saturday afternoon, Diehr and Bencie had not acknowledged or responded to The Sun’s requests for information. The Sun also left a voicemail at Diehr’s cell phone number on Saturday afternoon.

Facility ownership

According to The Sun’s research, two of the nine long-term care facilities in Manatee County that reported COVID-19 cases list ownership by LLCs that share the same mailing address and registered agent.

Eight long-term care facilities in Manatee County report COVID-19 cases
The Braden River Rehabilitation Center in Bradenton is one of nine long-term care facilities in Manatee County to report COVID-19 cases and/or deaths among residents or staff members. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

According to www.medicare.gov, Braden River Rehabilitation Center at 2010 Manatee Ave. E. in Bradenton is owned by Braden River Rehabilitation Center LLC.

According to the Florida Division of Corporations, Braden River Rehabilitation Center LLC lists 101 Sunnytown Road, Suite 201, in Casselberry as its mailing address and Tallahassee-based Cogency Global Inc. as its registered agent.

According to www.medicare.gov, Riviera Palms Rehabilitation Center at 926 Haben Blvd. in Palmetto is owned by Sovereign Healthcare of Palmetto LLC – an LLC that lists the same Casselberry mailing address and registered agent as Braden River Rehabilitation Center.

Two long-term care facilities in Manatee County reported more than 100 COVID-19 cases
The Riviera Palms Rehabilitation Center in Palmetto is one of nine long-term care facilities in Manatee County to report COVID-19 cases and/or deaths among residents or staff members. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

None of the other seven facilities that reported COVID-19 cases share a common mailing address or registered agent.

According to www.medicare.gov, Bradenton Health Care at 6305 Cortez Road W. in Bradenton is owned by 6305 Cortez Road West Operations LLC.

Casa Mora Rehabilitation and Extended Care at 1902 59th St. W. in Bradenton is owned by FI-Casa Mora LLC.

Manatee Springs Rehabilitation and Nursing Center at 5627 Ninth St. E. in Bradenton is owned by Manatee Operating LLC.

Residence at Bay Vue at 105 15th St. E. in Bradenton is owned by Riverfront Acquisition I LLC.

Westminster Point Pleasant, 1700 Third Ave. W. in Bradenton is owned by Presbyterian Retirement Communities Inc.

Brookdale Bradenton Gardens and The Cottages of Bradenton are not listed at Medicare.gov.

According to Manatee County Property Appraiser records, the Brookdale Bradenton Gardens property at 5612 26th St. W. in Bradenton is owned by Emerifrat LLC. The Cottages of Bradenton property at 5700 24th St. E. in Bradenton is owned by Louisa Holding LLC.

Eight long-term care facilities in Manatee County report COVID-19 cases

Eight long-term care facilities in Manatee County report COVID-19 cases

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Community News, Featured, Health, Manatee County.

UPDATED April 20, 2020 – MANATEE COUNTY – Manatee County officials are concerned about the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) among residents and staff members at long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and assisted living facilities.

Manatee County Public Safety Director Jake Saur addressed these concerns during Friday’s emergency county commission meeting.

“Our number one testing concern right now is with our nursing homes. The state has brought in incident management teams to our nursing homes and they’ve started a very big push to get all of those patients and workers tested,” he said.

“As of this week, our health department has started issuing involuntary quarantines to some of those nursing home workers because we know they’re spreading COVID-19. The state is reserving those tests for the nursing homes. We have to get into those nursing homes to make sure they’re following all the proper procedures and that they’re also being tested,” Saur said.

“Our nursing homes and so forth are taking a hit right now. I’m curious why we’re just hearing this today and why we weren’t on this sooner,” Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said.

“These folks are not going out. It’s coming in from the community. We have people that are dying in nursing homes. We’ve got to get a handle on this,” Commission Chair Betsy Benac said.

“There’s three or four assisted living facilities that we have as hot spots right now,” Commissioner Carol Whitmore added.

FDOH data reports

On Tuesday, April 7, the twice-daily Florida Department of Health (FDOH) Joint Information Center Data Reports included for the first time a list of counties reporting COVID-19 cases involving long-term care facility residents and/or staff members.

The April 7 FDOH/Joint Information Center morning data report listed 23 long-term care facility COVID-19 cases in Manatee County. Those reports did not yet include long-term care facility deaths.

The April 15 evening FDOH data report was the first to also include long-term care facility resident and staff member deaths, and that report cited 45 positive cases and eight deaths associated with long-term care facilities in Manatee County.

Governor orders facilities named

Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed nursing home concerns at his Saturday press conference.

DeSantis said members of the Florida National Guard are now going into nursing homes and doing spot testing to try to identify asymptomatic staff members who may be infected with COVID-19.

“We are telling the Guard to expand the strike teams into the assisted living facilities,” DeSantis said.

Eight long-term care facilities in Manatee County report COVID-19 cases
Gov. Ron DeSantis discussed nursing homes and other long-term care facilities during his Saturday afternoon press conference. – Florida Channel | Submitted

“Since the beginning of this crisis, probably our number one point of emphasis has been on long-term care and nursing home facilities. Very early on we put strong guidance and regulations in place so that staff members – anyone who entered a facility – had to be screened for coronavirus symptoms. We also prohibited outside visitors,” DeSantis said.

“What we found is you may have everyone doing everything right in one of these facilities, but you could have a staff member who’s not symptomatic and it can spread throughout the staff and spread to the residents very quickly,” DeSantis said.

“I told the Surgeon General from the beginning that we want to put as much information out as you can. I don’t think you should be identifying individual patients by name. I have now directed him that it is necessary to release the names of the facilities where a resident or staff member has tested positive for COVID-19,” DeSantis said.

Local facilities identified

Saturday evening’s FDOH data report email included for the first time a link to an untitled four-page report that listed county-by-county every long-term care facility in Florida that reported positive COVID-19 cases or deaths. That list only includes the names of the facilities and the counties they are located in. It does not provide the number of cases or deaths at a specific facility.

The following Manatee County facilities were included in Saturday’s list:

  • Braden River Rehabilitation Center, 2010 Manatee Ave. E. in Bradenton;
  • Bradenton Health Care, 6305 Cortez Road W. in Bradenton;
  • Brookdale Bradenton Gardens, 5612 26th St. W. in Bradenton;
  • Casa Mora Rehabilitation and Extended Care, 1902 59th W. in Bradenton;
  • Manatee Springs Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, 5627 Ninth St. E. in Bradenton;
  • Residence at Bay Vue, 105 15th St. E. in Bradenton;
  • Riviera Palms Rehabilitation Center, 926 Haben Blvd. in Palmetto;
  • Westminster Point Pleasant, 1700 Third Ave. W. in Bradenton.
Eight long-term care facilities in Manatee County report COVID-19 cases
Bradenton Health Care on Cortez Road is one of eight long-term care facilities in Manatee County that has reported COVID-19 cases or deaths connected to facility residents or staff members. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

Saturday evening’s FDOH data report listed 68 positive long-term care facility resident or staff COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths in Manatee County. Sunday evening’s FDOH data report listed 120 long-term care facility cases and the same 13 deaths.

Sun Facebook fan Brenda Smonskey saw the list on The Sun’s website and discovered that her employer, Beneva Lakes Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Sarasota, is on the list of long-term care facilities reporting COVID-19 cases.

“Thank you,” she posted on The Sun’s Facebook page. “I work prn at Beneva Lakes and was not informed.”

According to the list, long-term care facilities accounted for nearly 29% of the county’s 415 reported COVID-19 cases and nearly 42% of the county’s 31 reported COVID-19 deaths.

As of Sunday evening, Manatee County had the fourth-highest number of long-term care facility cases and deaths in Florida, trailing only Miami-Dade County, Broward County and Palm Beach County.

Sunday evening’s data report email referenced the statewide numbers and said, “There are currently 307 long-term care facilities with positive cases of COVID-19. Of the 1,825 cases of residents or staff in long-term care facilities, 179 have died.” 

No additional facilities in Manatee County were named in Sunday evening’s facilities’ list.

Braden River

On April 17, the Lakeland-based newspaper The Ledger reported it obtained a document from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission that contained information on 59 confirmed COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and assisted living facilities in Florida.

According to The Ledger and its reference to the April 14 Florida Medical Examiners Commission report, four of the seven long-term care facility deaths in Manatee County reported at that time were connected to the Braden River Rehabilitation Center.

The Braden River Rehabilitation Center in Bradenton is among those in Manatee County that has reported COVID-19 cases or deaths with residents or staff members. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

On Saturday, The Sun requested from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission the document referenced by The Ledger.

The Sun received the following response from spokesperson Gretl Plessinger: “We haven’t released information from the Medical Examiners Commission on COVID-19. We are compiling the information received by the commission.”

Plessinger said she would provide that information when it becomes available.