City to Release Report on Health Department’s Response to COVID-19 Spread in Long Term Health Care Facilities

The City Council is set to receive a report detailing the Pasadena Public Health Department’s response to the Coronavirus outbreak in senior living facilities.

City officials confirmed the pending report days after Vice Mayor Tyron Hampton called for a review of City Manager Steve Mermell’s contract.

Hampton claimed his multiple questions about the senior living facilities were not being adequately addressed.

Nearly all of the 69 local residents who have died from the Coronavirus outbreak were residents of long term health care facilities.

On Monday, Mermell said the city was conducting inspections of those facilities as part of its duty to keep the community safe.

“We did it this weekend. Although a number of our inspections have been done virtually with a team of people and someone inside the facility with a tablet, this is a practice to keep the inspectors safe, and it allows them to inspect more facilities.”

Hampton expressed concern that Mermell’s response to the crisis may be insufficient.

When asked about the inspections on Tuesday, city officials confirmed that an in-person walkthrough occurred at Brighton Care Center on Sunday shortly after 5 p.m.

The inspection concluded that: All staff were in full PPE compliance; the front door was locked when closed tightly; no visitors were allowed inside the facility; the screening log was visible and well documented, and the patient care areas cannot be observed from outside the facility.

“There have been numerous in-facility visits and virtual inspections at the skilled nursing facilities,” according to Lisa Derderian.

Although the city does have the authority to inspect the facilities, many of the oversight requirements fall under the state’s purview.

Mayor Terry Tornek said Hampton’s response was of particular concern given the Mayor’s intense focus on protecting residents in nursing homes.

“Many of them are in his district,” Tornek observed. “He has been concerned about it and has expressed his concerns for quite some time. My sense of it is that the health department and the city manager are equally concerned.”

Pasadena Public Health Director Dr. Ying Ying Goh issued new orders on April 12, aimed at stopping Coronavirus outbreaks in the city’s long-term care facilities.

Those orders directed licensed skilled nursing facilities (SNF) and assisted living facilities (ALF) to follow certain infection prevention and control measures, including following current guidance of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the California Department of Public Health, and the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

Measures include limited entry of individuals into facilities, required symptom screening for all employees prior to work, suspension of communal dining and activities, separation of patients with COVID-19 from those who do not have the illness, and use of proper PPE effective against COVID-19.

However, at that point seven Pasadena residents had died, all in long term health facilities. Hampton has asserted the city should have acted sooner and been better prepared for the an outbreak in health care facilities.