Coronavirus Concerns Mount At Beverly Nursing Home

BEVERLY, MA — Family members of at least two patients at CareOne at Essex Park in Beverly say they are considering filing lawsuits over how the nursing home has handled coronavirus cases at the facility.

"He wasn't well, but he wasn't supposed to die," said the family member of a man who contracted coronavirus at CareOne at Essex Park in Beverly and died over the weekend. The woman asked that her name not be used as she considered her legal options.

Brenna House, administrator at CareOne at Essex Park, and Patricia Chiorello, senior vice president of communications for CareOne, have not responded to multiple requests for comment since Patch first reported on problems at the nursing home last week.

"There is severe neglect at that nursing home," said Nichole Parsons, of Salem, whose 74-year-old grandmother had lived in the facility's long-term care wing before being transferred to Beverly Hospital Sunday night. A test at the hospital confirmed that she had the coronavirus; she has since been sent to Lahey Hospital in Burlington.

In interviews with Patch, family members of patients said they have gotten little and sometimes conflicting information about the coronavirus at CareOne.

On Monday, the same day Patch reported that there were 13 coronavirus cases at the nursing home, a nursing staff member told Parsons there were only three cases. As of Tuesday, there were 18 cases at CareOne at Essex Park, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Other residents said their family members had been sent to Beverly Hospital as soon as they showed symptoms of the coronavirus.

"They're pushing cases out the door," said one patient's niece, who also asked that her name not be used. "They assured me there was no COVID on his unit, but then where did he get it? He hasn't been anywhere else in a month."

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Parsons said her grandmother, who has shown signs of improvement since being transferred to Lahey, and other patients were still using the common room even as the nursing home staff told families they were being isolated. When admitted to Lahey, her diabetic grandmother's blood sugar was 700 and she became septic from a urinary tract infection.

"I'm not saying it's their fault for her catching [new coronavirus], but it's the neglect that led to all these other problems," Parsons said. "I've been in there numerous times and have seen patients sitting in dirty diapers for eight-plus hours."

CareOne, the national company that owns and operates CareOne at Essex Park, suspended visits to its facilities March 12.

On Saturday, state health officials said 44 percent of the 686 people who had died of the coronavirus were residents in long-term care facilities. In Massachusetts, 199 nursing homes have reported at least one case among staff and patients, and 3,050 of the state's25,475 cases were linked to long-term care facilities.

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Dave Copeland writes for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).