The site of Orange County’s largest reported outbreak of COVID-19 had been given more than a dozen of health citations in the last year before the coronavirus pandemic.
PruittHealth – Carolina Point, a long-term care facility located on Mt. Sinai Road, received 13 health citations from a federal Medicare inspection completed in September 2019. The citations included failing to complete annual and quarterly Minimum Data Sets for patients, failing to ensure each resident receives an accurate assessment of daily activities, failing to ensure a qualified health professional conducts resident assessments and others.
In addition, the federal government levied two fines against PruittHealth for the Carolina Point facility in 2019. The two fines, issued in March and June, totalled nearly $15,000.
The combination of these factors lead Medicare to give Carolina Point a one-star rating out of five stars on its Nursing Home Compare tool.
On Wednesday, PruittHealth – Carolina Point was named as one of the worst outbreak sites of COVID-19 in the state, with more than 60 positive cases reported. State health officials also cited two deaths and seven hospitalizations stemming from the facility. The number of cases led to state health officials issuing new requirements for skilled nursing centers and long-term care facilities, including daily screenings of all staff members.
PruittHealth’s Communications Department shared a release following the release of the positive COVID-19 test results on Wednesday:
Carolina Point began operating at Code Red status as soon as we received notice of the first presumptive positive COVID-19 patient. Under the guidance of public health officials, enhanced infection prevention protocol was implemented. We are actively monitoring staffing levels, appropriate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) and have installed an air scrubber system. We also have built isolation units to work to contain the virus.
We are immensely grateful to Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for their outstanding guidance and the offer to test allPruittHealth – Carolina Point residents. This is unprecedented. Thanks to them, we were able to test 100 percent of the residents in just 48 hours. We are actively communicating with these residents’ families.
We will continue to monitor the issue and its effects on our community as we follow the latest public health guidance. We ask for your prayers for the patients’ loved ones during this difficult time, and out of respect for them and the patients’ privacy, we cannot share any more details at this time.
We ask any employee, patient, or family member with questions to contact our Emergency Operations Center at 855-742-5983. For updates and more information on our disease protocols, please visit PruittHealth.com.
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