SHORTCOMINGS

Virus-Stricken Washington Nursing Home Failed to Report Outbreak for 2 Weeks: WaPo

Federal inspectors determined that the nursing home, which had 37 deaths linked to coronavirus, did not sufficiently care for residents during the outbreak.

The Life Care Center of Kirkland did not report an outbreak of respiratory illness among the facility’s residents to local authorities for two weeks, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. That outbreak became the first major cluster of COVID-19 in the United States and was eventually linked to 37 deaths in the Washington state nursing home. State law and county regulations required Life Care to report any suspected flu outbreak within 24 hours. The facility also did not sufficiently care for residents as the virus continued to spread among them, an investigation determined. Federal inspectors wrote a letter to the Life Care Center, warning that they may be fined $611,000 and lose healthcare funding if they do not fix a series of inadequacies that directly fueled the deadly outbreak, the Post reported.