Nothing. Go sign and she'll be there. Lori
Simonelli, who's waited 14 months
for this moment a chance to be
outside with her mother Carol
listening to Frank Sinatra how
my hand similarly moved her mom
into Chestnut Ridge two years ago. They
had Bingo, Dad games at a beauty parlor.
You felt good about her being there,
yes. And then it stopped.
What changed? Everything everything
means Kovit temporary staff
and isolation.
Her mom is wheelchair bound and has
dementia their days Simonelli is
wondered who's closer mom is wearing.
Why her water isn't placed within reach,
or how illnesses like a UTI can go
undiagnosed by those on the inside.
She misses church, she misses hugs, sad.
That's why every day Simonelli studied
this report which lists the COVID cases
at nursing homes throughout the state.
November Chestnut Ridge reported
its first positive resident all of
a sudden. A week later they
have full patient involvement,
full staff involvement and then do you know,
in your gut that there is infection
practices that possibly were not being
observed according to the state it
actually took about three weeks.
But yes by December,
just about every resident had
tested positive and staff were
quick to follow the nursing.
Brian Lee, director of
Families for better Care,
says there's usually one key reason why
the underlying cars is the lack of staff.
Georgia staffing levels are.
Horrible, horrible horrible trip.
Tragic OK on Sophie levels.
There needs to be something
done to help improve
staffing. Georgia did try to do something.
Use tax dollars to foot the $450,000
bill to hire temporary nurses at
Chestnut Ridge throughout the state.
We have spent more than 378 million
at hospitals and long term care
facilities during this pandemic.
Still, it was similarly a
retired patient care technician.
That noticed her mother struggling
to breathe during a window visit.
She's labored.
She's like this. It's obvious facility
gave her mom oxygen,
but as Carol's condition grew worse,
the family demanded they call
an ambulance at the hospital.
Doctors told them she has
COVID pneumonia in all lobes. What's baffling
to Ciminelli is that just one month
prior to the outbreak, just not Ridge,
had received nearly 100 and
$19,000 from the federal government
bonus money for doing a good job
protecting residents from the virus.
Yeah yeah, it's very alarming.
It's it's just alarming. Last year the
US Department of Health and Human Services
gave more than $45 million in bonus
money to 321 nursing homes in Georgia,
even though 42 of them had received
fines for safety violations that same
year from the same federal agency,
with this pandemic has done is
it's exposed the cracks within
the long term care system.
The staffing issues the the
oversight of the nursing homes,
the LAX oversight, some
of the fines related directly to infection
control rooms not properly disinfected.
Staff going in and out without washing
their hands or wearing face masks.
According to this inspection report,
a nurse at Hermann Health and
Resources tested positive for COVID,
but kept working for five days
in direct contact with at
least 40 residents and staff.
And in almost every case,
the bonus money paid for those fines
and then some they got all their
fines back and then some in bonus
payments is just a total disservice.
Slap in the face, gut punch,
whatever euphemism you want to use
to the residents who have already
suffered so much this pandemic.
It's just a total injustice for
not more than half of the facilities
earning this bonus payment have had
five or more residents die from COVID.
But each adjust defends the payment saying,
in part, nursing homes have been
disproportionately impacted by this pandemic,
given their congregate nature and increased
challenges of controlling infections.
This is very upsetting. Can you believe that
until now Simonelli House had
to advocate for a mother from a
distance window always between them?
That's why she gets upset
when the blinds to that window
or closed. It's what time?
11:00 o'clock? And there's no.
They're all like locked in and
no sunshine, so that's the way
it goes. Inspectors found no problems
with infection control at Chestnut
Ridge when they visited in July,
August, November and January.
Still, COVID killed Ton residents there.
As for Carol, investigators went
out more than a month after her
daughter filed the complaint,
they ruled her claims.
Unsubstantiated
look at this guy.
I know it's beautiful.
Still, Ciminelli is keeping
a watchful eye over
her mother's care. She hopes
things return to the way they were.
Nothing but blue skies
from now on. Sing a song.