PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. — A former employee claims a lack of communication to staff, families and residents has been a major factor in the COVID-19 outbreak at Brighton Gardens – a Prairie Village hot spot.
There are now 79 coronavirus cases associated with the facility, according to a Tuesday email from Brighton Gardens Executive Director Lisa Barnes to families of residents.
The Johnson County Department of Health and Environment (JCDHE) reported 14 deaths.
That led to the department issuing an ultimatum to the facility's management and ownership to follow the guidelines from JCDHE Director Doctor Sanmi Areola to stop further spread of the virus or that department would enforce those guidelines.
"We're not going to strictly rely on these entities to do the right thing,” Areola said. “We're going to stay on them and hold them accountable.”
The 41 Action News Investigators spoke with a former Brighton Gardens employee. That worker, who asked not to be identified due to concerns about future employment, quit last week.
The worker said testing of all staff and residents didn't happen until the health department intervened.
Areola, who said his department had previously given testing supplies to Brighton Gardens, confirmed that claim.
"The decision to do testing of everyone in the facility was one that we made," he said.
The 41 Action News Investigators have spoken several times with a family member of a Brighton Gardens assisted living resident.
That family member said after multiple phone calls attempting to obtain information, the first communication from Brighton Gardens was last week, well into the facility's outbreak.
Specifically, that family member sent the 41 Action News Investigators a May 4 email from Barnes. By that time, Barnes' email noted there were already 50 Brighton Gardens COVID-19 cases – 36 residents and 14 staff.
"While it has been an incredibly challenging time for our entire community, I am so thankful for your continued support and proud of all the efforts of our incredible team,” Barnes wrote in that email.
A different family member of another resident sent the 41 Action News Investigators an email from Barnes dated May 12.
In the more recent email, Barnes stated that the COVID-19 cases associated with Brighton Gardens had grown to 79 – 48 residents and 31 staff.
In that email, Barnes wrote that she was providing "a comprehensive update on our community's response to the COVID-19 pandemic."
She wrote that 197 residents and staff had been tested for the virus in the most recent round of testing, resulting in 32 new positive results.
"Importantly, many of those that received a positive test result continue to be asymptomatic, and we are working closely with the residents' physicians and families to treat and manage residents within the community," Barnes wrote in the May 12 email.
When the 41 Action News Investigators first tried to reach Barnes for comment on May 5, the Investigators were referred to a corporate spokeswoman for Sunrise Senior Living, Brighton Gardens' owner.
On Monday, Sunrise Regional Vice-President of Operations Denise Falco sent an email that read, in part, "Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have regularly provided updates on the impact of the pandemic to residents, families and team members."
However, the former employee, as well as the family member the 41 Action News Investigators interviewed, claim communication both inside and outside the building has been poor.
"I think that's the biggest downfall of Brighton Gardens, and I mean not only with the staff, but with the family members as well as for residents," the former staff member said last week. "I had to track someone down and find out the information instead of just being able to know. They have a whole texting system where they can send a text to everybody in the building. I have residents complained to me asking me when they can get out of their rooms, have there been any deaths, who's positive, who's not positive, they have no idea. We weren't notified. We had no idea what was going on.”
And despite Barnes assurances, the family member of the assisted living resident told the 41 Action News Investigators that staff routinely had entered that resident's room without PPE and as recently as Monday.
"To me, it's not contained until the spread stops and consequences stop," Areola said.
An updated email from Falco on Tuesday laid out in bullet points the actions Brighton Gardens is taking to contain the virus spread.
· Our Care Leadership has spoken to JCDHE officials to review the measures we are taking and they are in agreement with our next steps to protect the community from further spread.
· We recently completed a second round of COVID-19 testing of individuals who previously tested negative. Based on the results of that testing we will evaluate a cohorting plan to move residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 to a separate area of our community. We will continue to follow the JCDHE’s guidance on necessary testing for the entire community.
· We continue to follow our infection control protocols, including screening all team members. Any team member who experiences COVID-19 symptoms, indicates they have been exposed to the virus or who tests positive must self-quarantine outside of the community per guidance from the CDC. We work with each member of our dedicated team to support any team member who becomes ill. We have established a vacation leave bank program to benefit fellow staff who may need to be out of work at this time and need assistance.
· We are bringing in additional resources in the areas of Care, Operations and HR to continue supporting the community at this time, and help ensure all infection control measures as recommended by the health department are being consistently followed.
· Our community has sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) and team members are wearing full PPE (masks, gowns, gloves, goggles) when providing care to residents with a COVID-19 diagnosis or symptoms. In addition, we are monitoring PPE use within the community to identify any need for team member coaching and retraining to support infection control protocols.
· All team members are wearing masks throughout the community and we are supporting residents with masks, when tolerated, while they receive care.
