COVID-19 spread at related ALFs in Hialeah. Florida health agency is investigating.
On a single day in the second week of May, two Hialeah assisted living facilities under the same ownership group — including one that has since been shut down by the state — each reported a staff member had tested positive for COVID-19. A resident of one of the facilities also had contracted the illness and had been transferred to a hospital.
About a week later, the virus had gotten into a third facility as well. By then, dozens of residents at the Salmo 23 Elder Care, Salmo 23 No. 2 LLC and Salmos 23 V LLC facilities, had come down with the illness. So had employees who worked at the Salmos facilities, clustered near each other about two miles north of Miami International Airport.
On Friday last week, the state suspended Salmos 23 V’s license after inspectors reported that an employee who tested positive was screening other workers prior to them entering the facility while wearing no personal protective equipment. Health officials also observed crowding and a lack of mask wearing among residents inside the facility.
At the time, health officials noted that the facilities appeared to share at least one employee. Now, nearly a week later, all residents from the three affected facilities have been transferred out, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.
But health officials haven’t said how much of the spread might have been caused by employees working at multiple locations. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for AHCA told the Miami Herald it was “investigating issues related to the other facilities” but would not provide further details.
At least one other related facility, Salmos 23 #4, remains open and unaffected, according to state reports. A fifth Salmos facility — Salmo 23 III — did not answer the phone at the facility. A spokeswoman for the Salmos facilities said on Thursday that the company had no comment on the state’s investigation.
There have been no deaths associated with the cases in the Salmos facilities.
It is unclear from the AHCA report what prompted health officials to survey the Salmos 23 V facility last week, but inspectors noted the building had a history of infractions, including nearly 60 “deficiencies” that Florida authorities identified during one day’s worth of inspections last year.
The rapid spread of coronavirus through the Salmos facilities has left families on edge, questioning why precautions weren’t taken. One woman interviewed by the Herald, whose father tested positive at the Salmos 23 V facility and was hospitalized with mild symptoms, said she had always thought the facility was clean and generally well-run.
The woman, who asked that her name be kept private out of concern about retaliation against her father, said she was taken off guard by the health officials’ memo included in the agency’s order to suspend the license, especially that an employee who tested positive was asked to screen others entering the building.
“I was shocked to read that they would make a judgment call like that, and they would have someone operating there, tending to residents, who was positive,” she said. “That’s scary.”
When health officials visited Salmos 23 V on May 20, they reported that the facility had five caregivers including its administrator, and that the only personal protective gear they donned were surgical masks and gloves. Each of the five caregivers had been exposed to the virus, the state report found, and prior to that, eight other staff members had tested positive.
That meant the facilities no longer had any employees who hadn’t been exposed to COVID-19 who could safely help residents, the report concluded.
Earlier this month, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the county is considering whether it would cover the cost of sick leave for employees at elder-care facilities who test positive for COVID-19, concerned that workers would avoid getting tested if they did not have paid days off.
Daily reports from the state show that the virus spread through the facilities quickly from May 13 to May 23, but Salmos 23 Elder Care had the most cases reported first: 22 positive residents and 7 positive staff members by May 14.
The following day, all three facilities were reporting positive staff members: seven at Salmos 23 Elder Care, two at Salmos 23 No. 2, and six at Salmos 23 V. The facilities are under the same ownership group, though some are called “Salmo 23” and others are “Salmos 23.”
As of May 26, 24 residents had tested positive and been transferred to hospitals from Salmos 23 Elder Care, 12 residents had tested positive and been transferred out of Salmos 23 No. 2, and 44 residents had tested positive and been transferred out of Salmos 23 V, the facility that is now suspended from operating.
The woman whose father is in the hospital with the virus said he is unhappy and anxious about returning to the place he called home before the virus upended their lives.
“It’s been a very frustrating and overwhelming situation,” she said. “Not only am I concerned about his overall health ... now I have to worry about him being moved to another facility, and being safe somewhere else.”
Miami Herald reporter Samantha Gross contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 4:43 PM.
