Alone, Ignored, And the Virus at The Door

Nursing homes responded to the pandemic by blame-shifting, but an investigation into a troubled chain suggests the industry could have done more to stop outbreaks

- By Ben Elgin

In early April the Trevecca Center for Rehabilitation & Healing in Nashville received an urgent call. At the time, Tennessee had only 3,000 coronavirus cases, compared with more than 100,000 in the state of New York. But the caller, the nursing director at a nearby kidney dialysis center, was worried. She said one of the home’s residents had been given a routine test before an appointment and had tested positive for the coronavirus. She said she believed that Trevecca, a 240-bed nursing home, might have an outbreak on its hands. Trevecca’s managers were busy, she was told, so she left a message.

Two days later, the caller tried again, insisting that this was serious and asking to speak with the home’s administrator, Carl Young. But she didn’t get through to Young—nor did people from a second dialysis center with an identical warning, say four current and former Trevecca employees familiar with the calls.

The dialysis workers weren’t the only ones worried that something was wrong at the facility. Nashville’s Metro Public Health Department had also gotten a report from a Trevecca contractor who was helping oversee its ventilator unit. The contractor said a Trevecca manager had warned him that sick residents weren’t being tested for Covid. “This just does not seem right clinically or ethically,” wrote the contractor in an email, which was first reported by the city’s NewsChannel 5.