Second Bellingham nursing home to admit new coronavirus patients into wing for COVID-19
A Bellingham nursing home is one of three in the Puget Sound region setting up COVID-19 units to begin housing residents recovering from the coronavirus in an effort to prevent the respiratory illness from spreading to other long-term care facility residents.
Avamere Bellingham Health Care and Rehab on Birchwood Avenue near the Bellingham Golf and Country Club will be joined by Avamere Transitional Care of Puget Sound in Tacoma and Richmond Beach Rehab in Shoreline, according to a release from the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
Together the three facilities, which are all owned by Oregon-based Avamere Family of Companies, will offer 135 beds for recovering COVID-19 patients, the release stated.
“Long-term care facilities across Washington have made incredible strides in a short period of time to combat COVID-19 by practicing proper infection control, limiting visitors and quarantining COVID-positive residents,” Department of Social and Health Services Aging and Long-Term Support Administration Assistant Secretary Bill Moss said in the release. “The creation of COVID-19 units is the next step we need to take to ensure we are protecting Washingtonians who are most at risk for getting the virus.”
The wings just for COVID-19 in each facility will be cordoned off from the rest of their respective facilities, have their own entrances and dedicated staff, the release stated, and patients who test positive for COVID-19 will be moved to each location after being discharged from the hospital or transferred from another long-term care facility.
Once a patient tests negative for COVID-19 twice in a two-week period, they will return to their original long-term care facility or another residence of their choice, according to the release.
Another Bellingham nursing facility, Shuksan Healthcare Center, has already been accepting patients who previously tested positive for COVID-19. So far, the facility reports that it has accepted five new residents, one of which has since died.
The Bellingham nursing home announced last month that it would begin accepting new patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Whatcom County Health Department first announced a coronavirus outbreak at Shuksan on March 22. Since then, a total of 54 people at the facility tested positive — 31 residents and 23 staff members. Ten of those residents later died.
Department of Social and Health Services spokesperson Chris Wright told The Bellingham Herald that he learned that Shuksan is admitting COVID-positive patients on Monday. He said is not aware of any other facilities doing so elsewhere in the state at this time.
“Facilities can open COVID-only wings if they have the ability and the resources,” Wright said, but he added that only the three Avamere facilities are currently getting enhanced Medicare rates for working with the Department of Social and Health Services to open the COVID-only wings.
Social and Health Services is working to add other long-term care facilities willing open COVID-19 units, according to the release.
