Whispering Pines: Moving Forward After The Worst Of Times

EAST HAVEN, CT — Whispering Pines Rehabilitation and Nursing Center was for weeks — through the worst of the coronavirus pandemic — the unfortunate archetype for how COVID-19 was sweeping through nursing homes and claiming lives along the Connecticut shoreline.

The nursing home in East Haven saw dozens of cases in residents, and around 20 percent of staff also tested positive. And it suffered many deaths.

“We paid a terrible price,” facility director of nursing Chris Regan told a reporter when Patch visited the 90-bed facility Monday.

“We have had negative press, to put it mildly, but our residents, their families, our staff, our families, everyone dedicated to the same thing, suffered because of it. But it’s been our families and our mission that’s kept our heads up and made it so that we could push through and get to the other side of our outbreak,” she said her eyes welling as she spoke in the gazebo on a stifling hot day, her mask secure in place.

“But we’ve had so much loss.”

When the virus struck Whispering Pines at the end of March, there were 85 residents; 25 died by the end of the worst of the outbreak. Of those residents who tested positive, 44 recovered.

“When our residents passed away, we all cried; families, and us, because we are family, too,” Regan said.

On one day, more than one resident died. Regan said the loss was devastating and “painful.”

“We’re on the other side of it now; but it was a terrible, heartbreaking experience for residents and their families and, of course, the rest of all of us as well,” she said.

The crisis at Whispering Pines

As Patch and many other media reported in early April, there was a crisis at Whispering Pines. The facility was not prepared for the pandemic. Nor were other nursing homes and health care and congregate facilities, especially without the quantity of personal protective equipment such as N95 respiratory masks that would be needed. But those shortages were not limited to nursing homes, as is now well known.

Regan said the coronavirus had already begun its invasion when health departments, from local to global, began to provide guidance, and even then it was changeable.

“Once we were in the throes of it, there wasn't specific guidance. We didn’t have enough PPE for everyone. Then it was the symptoms — and the guidance changed day to day — we’re looking for people with high fevers and respiratory symptoms, and that’s not what our residents presented with,” she explained.

During the monthslong outbreak, not only were residents becoming ill, so too were staff.

Regan said roughly 20 percent of the facility’s employees tested positive. And then, “during the crazy surge” in early April, a number of staff members said, “I can’t do this.”

“Staff were afraid to work in the environment and left,” she said.

Regan herself soon tested positive and was sick with COVID-19 for 25 days, 22 of which she ran a high fever. She said she did what she could when she could while home ill to help manage the crisis.

Assistant Director of Nursing Savonna Ormond took over in Regan’s absence. She said that the majority of residents who had coronavirus recovered.

“We have great rapport with our patients. They love us, we love them, Unfortunately, COVID was stronger than we ever expected. It was devastating. But with the care and the love we provided, that kept many patients going.”

Whispering Pines went from failing to thriving to COVID-19

Whispering Pines was purchased in 2018. The new owners said that by August 2019, the nursing center had gone from “a struggling, failing and probably going-to-close place to a deficiency-free report last summer.”

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports, in August 2019, the facility had no deficiencies.

Previously, in 2017 and early 2018, there were myriad deficiencies noted, and the facility was fined more than $12,000 in total. Currently, it has two citations, while the average nursing home in the state has around seven. It currently has an "average" overall rating with a "much above average" for the quality of care, the federal reports read.

"We were really doing well," Regan said. “Then COVID and in April 2020, and we’re on the front page of the paper because we had 25 people die: ‘They must have not done something right if that happened,’ people are thinking. It’s hurtful. It’s discouraging. Hospital people are heroes and the nursing home people are killing people. That spin, those two narratives are really unfair.”

There were no hero parades for nursing home staff, she said. However, Michael Roy, the guy who took his truck, and huge American flags and patriotic music through the streets of East Haven in support of front-line workers, showed up one day alone — and staff, and residents, Regan said, looked out the window and clapped and cried.

Then, the health department cited Whispering Pines for failing to implement a coronavirus early detection testing protocol.

But Tuesday, facility owner and CEO Michael Bartolotta said Whispering Pines is fighting that citation.

Guidance on testing was changeable and access was difficult, and facility administrator Terrence Brennan noted, it took many days after sending tests to the state health department’s lab at Rocky Hill for results.

"We got it early, we were the test and just had to figure it all out," Brennan said.

Bartolotta said, “We were doing very well up until this” and noted that he was “here every single day. I did not leave for over a month and a half. These people are my family.”

The outbreak at Whispering Pines ended May 24. There are no positive cases at the facility now.

Moving forward ... to the new normal

“We’re trying to move forward. Getting ourselves back to whatever normal is now while focusing on our residents’ quality of life and the quality of care we give them,” Regan said.

“And we have been doing that throughout this despite everything we’ve been through.”

The new normal has a large outdoor tent flanked by flowers with caged birds singing and chirping. A grill stands nearby, and the area is bright and cheery. It’s where families now can meet. When Patch visited Whispering Pines, several families were together outside near the gazebo, and one man stopped to admire the residents’ raised flower, herb and vegetable gardens.

“Getting past what we’ve gone through, it’s been so hard on families who couldn’t see their loved ones. It’s a struggle for the residents who have been isolated from their families. So we do more than provide quality care — we are there for our residents emotionally. Trying to explain why they can’t see families or friends emotionally draining for residents. Now, we have this.”

Whispering Pines has benefited from “tons of community support,” director of admissions Cathy Wysokowski said.

“We’d been providing excellent outcomes before and will continue to do that. Nothing’s changed about our commitment. We got bad press, but people need to remember what we were before and that we are the same: delivering excellent care. We were on the cusp of being the premier place on the shoreline, and we’re going to get back to that,” she said. “We are a valuable part of the community and, unfortunately, it hasn’t always felt that way.”

Mayor Joseph A. Carfora said that’s going to change. But back in April, alarmed at the deaths and cases, he wrote to the then-commissioner of the state Department of Public Health about Whispering Pines, saying in part that he had concerns about "...the lack of information and the quality of information that is being shared with the families, guardians, and/or conservators of residents.”

But that was then.

The mayor’s visit

After calling Carfora for comment following a visit to the facility Monday, Carfora told Patch he would be reaching out to Whispering Pines. Tuesday, he and East Haven Assistant Director of Administration and Management Michelle Benivegna visited, and Patch tagged along. Wysokowski, Ormond, Brennan and owner Bartolotta sat down with the town officials. Carfora listened to them share their story and then offered whatever assistance town is able to provide to the facility, which employs around 100 people, mostly local residents.

Back on April 6, Carfora made an announcement about the nursing home and the number of deaths reported. He said at the time that six people had already died and said "there may be others."

Tuesday, more than two months later, Carfora told Patch that he recognizes that Whispering Pines "has worked diligently to implement the recommendations" made by local and state health departments.

After meeting with staff Tuesday, Carfora said he was moved by workers' dedication to residents.

"Today I had the pleasure of visiting Whispering Pines and met with those responsible for the daily operations. I was touched by their dedication and love for those in their care," he said, noting that the coronavirus "had a significant impact on residents and their families."

But he also congratulated the facility for its procedures, some adopted by the state health agency.

"The protocols that Whispering Pines put in place in response to COVID-19 were so impactful, they are now being used by the state Department of Public Health in nursing homes throughout Connecticut," he said.

As Whispering Pines is praying for the best but is trying to prepare for the worst, again, it says it has all the PPE it needs should another outbreak hit. It has isolation units set up. Staff and residents will be regularly tested.

"I have been assured by the administration that they are prepared for any reoccurrence of this virus and they have ample supplies of PPE. I am confident in the care being provided to the residents at Whispering Pines," Carfora told Patch, saying he looks "forward to continued conversations with the administration."

During his sit-down Tuesday at the nursing home, he told administrators and medical staff that the "Mayor's office is with you. Whatever you need."

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