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The Eastern Kentucky nursing home where an unvaccinated worker started an outbreak of a COVID-19 variant that infected 46 people and killed three residents has been identified as the Life Care Center in Morehead.
The March COVID-19 outbreak triggered a federal-state investigation that stressed the critical importance of increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates among staff at such facilities.
Kentucky, with only 44% of nursing home workers vaccinated, trails national trends. About 50% of workers in nursing homes or assisted living report they received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to a recent Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll.
Kentucky public health officials initially declined to name the site of the outbreak the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used as an example of the risks of unvaccinated nursing home workers in an April 21 report.
(Company photo)
Coronavirus vaccines protect residents and staff in skilled nursing facilities against more contagious variants of the virus, according to aÂ
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of an outbreak of a more contagious variant in a Kentucky nursing home.
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The study reported that the first case identified was in a health-care worker at the facility who had symptoms of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, but had not been vaccinated. Only 53 percent of the health-care workers at the facility had been vaccinated, the study said, while 90% of the residents had.
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The outbreak and the study provided a test of vaccines against the more contagious variant, which had not been identified until the outbreak.
For the past year, Bruce Kleinschmidt and his sister, Ann Bowling, have been visiting their 95-year mother, Grace Kleinschmidt, through a window at her Louisville nursing home.
That s because in-person visits ended abruptly last year as COVID-19 began a deadly sweep through Kentucky s nursing homes, killing more than 2,300 residents since March 2020.
But in-person visits are about to resume under new guidelines announced Wednesday by federal authorities that significantly ease rules that had put nursing homes on lock-down. I am thrilled about it, Bowling said. I m looking forward to just being with her.
Gov. Andy Beshear said during his Thursday press conference that Kentucky nursing home visits can resume on Monday, though certain precautions, such as wearing masks and screening of visitors, will be required.
Visits to resume at most nursing homes after year of COVID isolation courier-journal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from courier-journal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Susan Arnold was recently named President of Management Advisors, Inc. in Hazard.
Ms. Arnold has over 35 years’ experience in long-term health care management, most recently as Regional Director of Operations for five long-term care facilities owned by Management Advisors, Inc.
She is a University of Kentucky graduate with a Bachelor of General Studies Degree with a focus in Health Administration.
Ms. Arnold’s licenses, certifications, memberships and recognitions include:
• Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1986.
• Administrator of Wolfe County Health & Rehabilitation Center from 1991 to 2013.
• Management Advisors, Inc. Consultant from 2013 to present, most recently as Regional Director of Operations for five facilities.