Editor’s Note: The following letter was written by Dr. Jim Hamilton, medical director of Habersham Home in Demorest. This letter is in response to Now Habersham’s recent reporting about the high incidence of COVID-19 among residents and staff at the nursing home.
May 23, 2020
TO: Now Habersham
I would like to respond to the recent article concerning Habersham Home’s high Covid-19 infection and death rates. I am currently the medical director of Habersham Home as well as four other area nursing homes: the Oaks in Baldwin, Toccoa Nursing Center, Mountain View in Clayton, and Friendship in Cleveland. I’ve been in medical practice in Habersham County for the past 33 years with the last 5 ½ years in full-time nursing home and rehab medicine, so I feel that I am in a position to explain what Habersham Home has done to address the alarming incidence of Covid-19 among its residents and staff.
In early March, Habersham Home greatly restricted access to the facility by not allowing any visitors or anyone else who was not necessary to provide care to the residents. All staff and everyone else who entered had their temperature taken and answered a few questions to determine possible Covid-19 contact. All residents were kept in their rooms to decrease the spread of the infection between residents. Their food was delivered to their rooms, and all group activities were stopped. At this point, the staff began to check residents’ temperatures, vital signs, and lungs each day. All staff began extra hand washing and disinfecting, were required to wear masks, and were trained in using PPE (protective gear). New admissions to the home were limited, and all incoming residents had to have a negative Covid-19 test. This is exactly the same protocol put into place by my other four nursing homes in the area.
On April 14, we had our first resident test positive for the disease, and as more residents began to test positive, all Covid-19 residents were moved into part of East wing under the care of designated staff who worked solely with Covid-19 positive residents and did not go back and forth between the sick and well residents. Of course, all staff who began to have symptoms of the disease were tested and quarantined at home for a minimum of 10 days if positive. The National Guard came on April 20 to disinfect the entire facility. Our first resident to succumb to the disease died on April 21. From that day until today, May 23, we have had nine residents die from Covid-19. Five of those nine residents were on Hospice and very ill before they became infected with Covid-19. In fact, I would say that those five died “with” Covid-19, not necessarily “from” Covid-19. The nine deceased residents ranged in age from 76 to 104 years old. Before the National Guard came back to test the entire facility and staff in mid-May, Habersham Home, like most nursing homes, had only tested those among the residents and staff who had symptoms of the disease. After the National Guard tested everyone in the facility, we received the alarming news of 55 positive residents and 47 positive staff members. So far, more than half of the residents and the staff who have tested positive have had no symptoms. I truly do not know why we’ve had such an epidemic at Habersham Home. I suspect that as more nursing homes and other groups within the community are completely tested, we will find a large prevalence of asymptomatic positives. I can verify that Habersham Home has done everything my other four nursing homes have done to try to prevent and slow the rate of infection. During the last few months, Habersham Home’s staff has regularly kept the residents’ family members apprised of the situation.
I would like to assure the public that the hospital and nursing home staff has taken this very seriously from the beginning and followed all the CMS (Medicare & Medicaid) and CDC guidelines. This quarantine has been very difficult for all the patients, staff, and patients’ families at all five nursing homes I go to. At nursing homes here and throughout the U.S., patients have been very isolated for the last few months and those who were used to seeing family regularly are very lonely. The staff has tried to make up for that by spending as much time as possible with the residents and by helping them communicate with their families by phone or Skype. Over the years, I have found that those who work in nursing homes generally have great compassion, concern, and love for the elderly, and I have seen that over and over during the Covid-19 crisis at Habersham Home as well as my other nursing homes.
Sincerely,
Jim Hamilton, M.D.
