Nursing facility confirms COVID-19 cases

Apr. 15--CUMBERLAND -- Despite the Allegany County Health Department's refusal to name the location of a long-term care facility with confirmed cases of COVID-19, an official for Cumberland Healthcare Center on Tuesday said some of its staff members tested positive for, and several residents were suspected of having, the disease.

Fred Stratmann is the spokesman and attorney for CommuniCare Family of Companies, which owns Cumberland Healthcare Center.

The skilled nursing facility, which offers long-term rehabilitation and care for senior citizens, has roughly 110 residents and 130 employees.

Of five workers recently tested for COVID-19, three were negative and two had positive results and are not working at the facility, Stratmann said.

Although 20 residents were exposed to the workers and/or showed some COVID-19 symptoms, only five were tested in part because "tests are not widely available," he said.

All five tests showed negative results.

The other 15 residents are receiving care in isolation.

"We are treating them as if they are positive (for COVID-19)," Stratmann said.

County health officials reported Saturday that two employees and one resident of a nursing home had tested positive for COVID-19, but didn't name the facility.

The CommuniCare Family of Companies, a family-owned business, has roughly 90 facilities in seven states, including 18 in Maryland.

The company also owns Commons at Cumberland, where no COVID-19 cases have been found, he said.

Stratmann said the company has been getting a lot of phone calls about potential COVID-19 cases.

He's happy to answer questions.

"The whole health care sector is in this together," he said. "This is something that's touching every one of us."

COVID-19 is a public health crisis, Stratmann said.

"We're being very transparent about it," he said of providing information. "We have no reason to hide behind this."

Apparently, ACHD officials disagree.

Despite repeated requests from the Cumberland Times-News, the local health department says the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act prevents them from answering questions about where COVID-19 cases have been confirmed.

"The Allegany County Health Department is not allowed to publicly release a patient's employer, the name of the nursing home where a patient lives, or the name of the facility where a patient resides, such as a prison," ACHD stated in a press release on Tuesday. "The health department contacts the employer/facility when there is a positive test result, and the employer/facility is responsible for letting staff, residents and residents' families know that there is a COVID-19 case."

That said, ACHD in the past has chimed in on locations where bed bugs were found, and currently lists on its website reports with the names of food service businesses that it inspects.

According to Shareese Churchill, Gov. Larry Hogan's spokeswoman, Maryland nursing homes, assisted living and long-term care facilities must report positive COVID-19 cases to their respective local health departments, and the state receives the cumulative numbers, but not individual cases per facility.

Despite Hogan's recent order that Maryland report race and ethnicity of COVID-19 patients, "race and ethnicity data will be reported in aggregate for the state of Maryland," ACHD stated. "Because we are a small county, providing the race/ethnicity of an Allegany County resident who tests positive for COVID-19 could potentially allow the patient to be identified."

That statement seems to overlook the governor's reason to study a disturbing, disproportionate impact the disease has shown particularly in African Americans.

"State Del. Nick Mosby has been a leading voice pressuring the Hogan administration to release the racial breakdown of coronavirus cases, saying an early analysis of the data is the only way to spot and rectify disparities," The Baltimore Sun reported.

In February, the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, published the bulletin "HIPAA Privacy and Novel Coronavirus."

The document states that HIPAA protects the privacy of patients' health information but is balanced to ensure that appropriate uses and disclosures of the information "still may be made when necessary to treat a patient, to protect the nation's public health, and for other critical purposes."

HIPAA does not allow a care provider to release individual demographic information, but the key word there is "individual," according to a Poynter report.

"That is why hospitals can, for example in the case of a mass shooting, say how many people were admitted, went to surgery and were treated and released," the report states.

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