McAlester nursing home owner, county officials dispute COVID-19 report

Apr. 8--Pittsburg County officials and the owner of New Hope Retirement Center dispute the inclusion of the nursing home in the Oklahoma State Department of Health's report of COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities.

New Hope Retirement Center in McAlester was listed among 23 long-term care facilities statewide to have a resident or employee test positive for COVID-19, according to a report by the OSDH.

But Pittsburg County officials and the nursing home owner say that is false.

"That is absolutely false information," Pittsburg County Emergency Management Director Kevin Enloe said Tuesday afternoon of the report. "From our standpoint, we know nothing of a confirmed case at a nursing home in Pittsburg County."

"We are working with the state office to see if we can get a retraction, what they need to do so that correct information is given to the public," Health Department Regional Director Juli Montgomery said Tuesday.

An OSDH representative said the report lists positive cases if a resident or staff member resided or had been in contact with the facility within 14 days of COVID-19 diagnosis.

COVID-19 symptoms like cough, shortness of breath, and fever may appear 2-14 days after exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

OSDH spokesperson Shelley Zumwalt said the department is taking all cases seriously and continues to investigate despite differences in data.

"There are multiple different scenarios that exist that could account for data being different as reported by the nursing homes and the data that OSDH is in the process of verifying," Zumwalt said.

New Hope Retirement Center owner Tom Montgomery said a person was admitted to New Hope on March 10 and the 55-bed facility announced on March 12 it would be going on lockdown to follow state and federal guidelines.

He said the resident was discharged on March 12 because "they did not want to be there if they were in lockdown."

Tom Montgomery said the OSDH notified the facility on March 26 -- 14 days after the resident was discharged -- that the person had tested positive for COVID-19. He said the person's roommate at the facility was tested for COVID-19 and the results were negative.

Although he believes New Hope was inaccurately listed on the OSDH report, Tom Montgomery said employees are taking precautions.

"We're checking everybody's temperature and we're only letting our staff come in," Montgomery said. He said doctors conduct appointments via video conference or phone calls.

The CDC recommends long-term care facilities:

--restrict all visitation except for certain compassionate care situations, such as end of life situations

--restrict all volunteers and non-essential healthcare personnel (HCP), including non-essential healthcare personnel (e.g., barbers)

--cancel all group activities and communal dining

--implement active screening of residents and HCP for fever and respiratory symptoms

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11 and President Donald Trump declared a national emergency due to the coronavirus on March 13.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced the state's first positive coronavirus case on March 6, issued a state of emergency on March 15, and issued a catastrophic health emergency on April 2.

Stitt's "Safer at Home" order that extends to April 30 for all 77 counties bans gatherings of more than 10 people and calls for people older than 65 and people with compromised immune systems to stay home.

Enloe said the Pittsburg County Emergency Management Office will release information about cases after confirmation.

"Any information that is something like that, that is going to be released, we will push it out, but we will only push it out in coordination with the state," Enloe said. "We are very cautious to not put out anything that is going to be what can be considered as fake news or not proper reporting. So the state will be addressing that and what may or may not have happened with that news being released. But I assure you that that is not the case here in our county -- we do not have a confirmed case in a long-term care facility."

Resources and information on COVID-19 can be obtained by calling 211 or going to https://covidresources.ok.gov/.

Contact Adrian O'Hanlon III at [email protected]

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