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Patients at 1 in 3 Michigan nursing homes have coronavirus, records show

Michigan released records on Friday confirming fears that the coronavirus is raging in state nursing homes, with 2,108 confirmed cases and dozens of homes with more than 20 cases apiece.

The records show nursing home patients account for at least 6 percent of Michigan’s total coronavirus caseload of nearly 37,000 as of Friday. 

The tally is certainly far higher since the new records don’t include nursing home patients who have recovered or have already died.

COVID-19 cases in Michigan nursing homes

For the first time, the state has revealed which of Michigan's nearly 500 nursing homes have confirmed cases of COVID-19. Excluding those who have already recovered or died, there are over 2,100 residents battling the coronavirus. That's nearly 6 percent of all cases in the state and occur in 30 percent of facilities. Type in the name of a facility or a county to find those facilities with COVID-19 cases (NOTE: Homes with no cases do not appear in database.)

CountyLong-term
care facility
Current
COVID-19 cases
AlpenaMedilodge Alpena32
BarryThornapple Manor1
BerrienPine Ridge Rehabilitation & Nursing4
CalhounBattle Creek Manor9
CalhounLaurels of Bedford10
CrawfordCrawford Continuing Care Center10
CrawfordGrayling Nursing & Rehab. Community5
EatonRegency at Lansing West2
GenesseeFenton HealthCare19
GenesseeHeartland HCC Briarwood1
GenesseeKith Haven9
GenesseeMaple Woods Manor24
GenesseeMedilodge of Grand Blanc12
GenesseeRegency at Grand Blanc20
GenesseeWellbridge of Fenton6
GenesseeWillowbrook Manor12
HillsdaleHillsdale County Medical Care Facility7
InghamBurcham Hills Center for Health & Rehab3
InghamIngham County Medical Care Facility1
InghamMedilodge of Okemos7
IoscoLakeview Manor Healthcare Center1
IsabellaIsabella Co. Medical Care Facility23
JacksonRidgecrest Health Campus1
KalamazooMedilodge of Kalamazoo17
KalamazooPlainwell Pines Nursing & Rehab.1
KentClark Retirement Community1
KentHealthBridge Rehabilitation10
KentMission Point of Cedar Springs23
KentThe Laurels of Kent1
LapeerLapeer County Medical Care Facility3
LivingstonCaretel Inns of Brighton37
LivingstonMedilodge of Livingston15
LivingstonWellbridge of Brighton3
MacombAdvantage Living Center - Roseville24
MacombAdvantage Living Center - Warren16
MacombAutumn Woods Residential Health40
MacombChurch of Christ Care Center6
MacombFather Murray Nursing Center5
MacombFraser Villa23
MacombHeartland Healthcare - Sterling Heights7
MacombLakepointe Senior Care & Rehab.8
MacombLakeside Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation17
MacombMartha T Berry Medical Care22
MacombMedilodge of Shoreline12
MacombMedilodge of Sterling Heights29
MacombPomeroy Sterling Skilled Rehab33
MacombRegency at Shelby Township4
MacombRegency at St Clair Shores1
MacombRegency Manor2
MacombShelby Crossing Health Campus5
MacombShelby Nursing Center19
MacombShorepoint Nursing Center45
MacombThe Villa At City Center13
MacombThe Village of East Harbor14
MarquetteNorlite Nursing Center10
MidlandBrittany Manor1
MonroeFountain View of Monroe1
OaklandBeaumont Rehab and Continuing Care4
OaklandBellbrook - Rochester Hills10
OaklandBloomfield Orchard Villa10
OaklandCambridge North Healthcare Center9
OaklandCambridge South Healthcare Center14
OaklandCanterbury on the Lake20
OaklandCedarbrook of Bloomfield Hills1
OaklandEvergreen Health & Living Center34
OaklandHeartland Health Care Center - Oakland6
OaklandLahser Hills Care Centre24
OaklandLake Orion Nursing Center11
OaklandLourdes Rehabilitation and Healthcare3
OaklandMarvin & Betty Danto Family Health Care5
OaklandMedilodge of Farmington9
OaklandMedilodge of Rochester Hills16
OaklandMedilodge of Southfield22
OaklandMission Point of Holly1
OaklandNotting Hill of West Bloomfield17
OaklandOakridge Manor Nursing and Rehab Center4
OaklandPomeroy Living - Rochester Skilled21
OaklandSKLD - Bloomfield Hills45
OaklandSt. Anne's Mead Nursing Facility10
OaklandThe Lakeland Center13
OaklandThe Manor of Novi14
OaklandThe Villa at Green Lake Estates12
OaklandVilla at Silverbell Estate23
OaklandWellBridge of Clarkston10
OaklandWellBridge of Novi2
OaklandWest Bloomfield Nursing Center56
OaklandWoodward Hills Nursing Center29
OttawaThe Inn at Freedom Village1
Presque IsleMedilodge of Rogers City1
SaginawChesaning Nursing & Rehab Center8
SaginawGreat Lakes Rehab Center8
SaginawHoyt Nursing & Rehab. Centre2
SaginawSamaritas11
SaginawWellspring Lutheran Frankenmuth42
ShiawasseeDurand Senior Care and Rehab Center34
St. ClairMedilodge of Port Huron12
St. ClairMedilodge of St. Clair16
TuscolaMedilodge of Cass City4
TuscolaTuscola Count Medical Care Community5
WashtenawChelsea Retirement Community21
WashtenawHeartland HCC - Ann Arbor8
WashtenawRegency At Bluffs Park6
WashtenawThe Villa at Parkridge2
WayneAdvantage Living Center Harper Woods17
WayneAdvantage Living Center-Wayne18
WayneAerius Health Center12
WayneAmbassador Nursing and Rehab Ctr70
WayneAngela Hospice Care Center8
WayneApplewood Nursing Center, Inc.11
WayneBelle Fountain Nursing & Rehab Center1
WayneBoulevard Temple Retirement32
WayneCamelot Hall Convalescent Centre5
WayneFairlane Senior Care and Rehab Center54
WayneFour Chaplains Nursing Care Center2
WayneFour Seasons Nursing Center of Westland1
WayneHartford Nursing & Rehab Center22
WayneHeartland HCC - Grosse Pointe Woods9
WayneHeartland Health Care Center Allen Park21
WayneHeartland Health Care Center - Canton3
WayneHeartland Health Care Center - Dearborn29
WayneHeartland Health Care Center Livonia NE8
WayneHenry Ford Village, Inc.11
WayneHeritage Manor12
WayneHope Healthcare Center7
WayneImperial Healthcare Centre76
WayneMarycrest Manor4
WayneMedilodge of Taylor13
WayneOakpointe Senior Care and Rehab Center25
WayneOmni Continuing Care4
WayneRegency At Canton24
WayneRegency A Villa Center65
WayneRegency Heights Nursing Center Detroit7
WayneRiverview Health and Rehab Ctr35
WayneSKLD Livonia47
WayneSKLD Plymouth11
WayneSpecial Tree Neurocare Center3
WayneThe Bay at Elmwood Health and Rehab14
WayneThe Villa at Great Lakes Crossing25
WayneThe Villa at the Park14
WayneWestland Convalescent & Rehab Center60
WayneWest Oaks Senior Care and Rehab5

Southeast Michigan is at the heart of the most serious outbreaks.

In Wayne County alone, six nursing homes have more than 40 COVID-19 cases apiece, including Imperial Healthcare Centre in Dearborn Heights with 76 cases.

Statewide, 1 in 3 nursing homes — 141 of 476 —  had at least one case of coronavirus. Wayne County had 38 homes with one confirmed case, while there are 30 in Oakland County and 21 in Macomb County.

Wayne County nursing homes topped the state with 785 COVID-19 cases, followed by Oakland County with 455 cases and Macomb County with 345 cases.

“This is so concerning. COVID-19 in nursing homes is like pouring gasoline on a fire. These people are so vulnerable,” said Peter Gulick, an infectious disease specialist at Michigan State University.

The records were released after weeks of resistance from state and local officials, including the Detroit Health Department that said making records public might cause the facilities “undue stress”.

Bridge has reported on the issue for weeks, noting that at least 17 states had disclosed the names of nursing homes with known coronavirus infections and eight of those posted lists online.

Earlier this week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the state would reverse course, following criticism from advocates who had called the withholding of information a “travesty.”

Brian Lee, executive director of Families for Better Care, a Texas-based nonproift advocacy group, told Bridge this month that failing to release information was a “a disservice to residents and health care workers … who are out there wondering if there is an outbreak in a loved one’s home.” 

Friday’s release of data, however, does not include all the facilities that care for Michigan’s seniors. 

It doesn’t include, for instance, information on 292 licensed homes for the aged – homes requiring less medical care than nursing homes – and more than 4,200 licensed adult foster care homes that serve the disabled. Those facilities have a total bed capacity of about 57,000 residents. (In contrast, nursing homes care for about 40,000 seniors statewide.)

Next week, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is expected to release reporting on COVID-19 cases at long-term care facilities.

But even beyond the sheer scale of coronavirus nursing home spread revealed by this public reporting, cumulative state data also point to a rising COVID-19 toll on Michigan’s elderly.

On April 1, the median age of Michigan COVID-19 deaths was 72. By Thursday, according to state COVID-tracking, that median age had climbed to 76. Those  60 and older accounted for 86 percent of all 3,085 deaths, while those 80 and older accounted for 39 percent of all deaths.

Advocates for the elderly say these new disclosures highlight the need to funnel  public resources to long-term care facilities with multiple cases of COVID-19.

Sarah Slocum, co-director of the Program to Improve Eldercare at Altarum, an Ann Arbor-based nonprofit research and consulting firm, said that could include everything from protective gear such as masks and gowns to inspections of nursing homes with widespread outbreaks.

“That’s the value of this data, to direct additional resources that may not have been put in place yet. That’s the point of it all, to target resources.”

 

Union officials say workers at Michigan nursing homes are being asked to do their job without sufficient protective gear.

Andrea Acevedo, President of SEIU Healthcare Michigan, told ClickOnDetroit that workers are wearing masks for up to seven days when they should be discarded after one use.

Acevedo said SEIU officials have been delivering gloves and masks to employees at nursing homes. 

She said the union, which represents more than 5,000 nursing home workers, has donated 10,000 masks and 10,000 gloves to nursing homes.

The release of public information comes as news reports of nursing homes with multiple COVID-19 cases and deaths piled up in recent days:

  • On April 18, an official at Hillsdale Hospital in rural southern Michigan reported that a county nursing home had 42 cases of COVID-19 among staff and residents, accounting for seven nursing home deaths among 10 total coronavirus deaths in Hillsdale County.

  • A Genesee County nursing home reported 17 COVID-19 resident deaths on Saturday, with an additional 24 residents testing positive, seven of whom were hospitalized. Twenty-six employees tested positive.

  • That followed reports  that 21 residents had died of COVID-19 at two Wayne County nursing homes, with 46 other residents with confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

Earlier this month, Wayne County officials told the Detroit Free Press that nursing home residents accounted for 94 of the county's 272 confirmed COVID-19 deaths (a count that does not include Detroit) as of April 10.

In Detroit, Mayor Mike Duggan has said about a quarter of all residents in the city’s 26 nursing homes had tested positive for the coronavirus.

National reports reflect similar numbers. A New York state report found that nearly half of the state’s COVID-19 deaths in the western part of the state were among nursing home residents.

A New York Times analysis of U.S. COVID-19 deaths found that one-fifth were among nursing homes, with the actual number likely far higher because of incomplete reporting of coronavirus deaths by nursing homes.

Michigan’s move to public disclosure of nursing home COVID-19 cases follows an announcement by federal officials on Sunday that U.S. nursing homes will be required to inform residents, their families and representatives when residents or staff contract the illness.

It also follows an executive order Whitmer issued April 15 to protect residents and staff at long-term care facilities. Among other things, the order requires facilities to report confirmed cases of residents with COVID-19 to staff within 12 hours, and to the local health department and MDHHS within 24 hours.

As of Tuesday, MDHHS mandates that all long-term care facilities submit daily reports of COVID-19 cases and deaths to the department as well as their bed capacity and inventory of personal protective equipment.

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