Sonoma County officials sound alarm over ‛dire’ need for help keeping COVID-19 out of local assisted living facilities

In the wake of a devastating coronavirus outbreak at a Santa Rosa assisted living facility, Sonoma County officials are now pleading for state help in stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

At least three residents of St. Francis Assisted Living in southwest Santa Rosa have died in recent days after all 20 residents and the entire staff of eight tested positive for the virus this month.

An employee at the home, who asked to remain anonymous, said 14 residents are still at the facility in stable condition. The others either have been taken to a hospital or have died.

On Sunday, Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane sent an urgent letter to Kim Johnson, the director of the state Department of Social Services, which licenses assisted living facilities, asking for help.

The letter was also signed by Paul Dunaway, director of the Adult and Aging division of the county Human Services Department, and Crista Barnett Nelson, executive director of Senior Advocacy Services, a regional agency that runs the Sonoma County Long-term Care Ombudsman program.

It cites the outbreak at St. Francis and asks for the state to provide more training; staffing assistance; the elimination of red tape when requesting assistance; greater enforcement from licensing officials; and greater transparency when outbreaks occur.

Barnett Nelson said the situation at St. Francis is a case study of how difficult it is to find replacement help at senior care homes when an outbreak occurs. She said the facility could not bring in staff to fill in for those who had contracted the contagion, and many continued to work even though they were sick.

In her request for help, Zane is calling for strike teams that can immediately respond to a crisis at a facility, providing infection control assistance and staffing to cover workers that contract the virus.

“We are urgently requesting that the Department of Social Services and our elected officials in Sacramento take immediate action to remedy this horrific situation,” Zane wrote in the letter.

Zane and Dunaway said Wednesday the state’s response to the letter was immediate and Johnson has scheduled a Zoom conference call on Friday to address the issues raised in the letter. Barnett Nelson and Dr. Sundari Mase, the county’s health officer, also are expected to participate in the meeting.

Zane said that deaths in assisted living facilities and skilled nursing homes are disproportionately higher than for the general population, reflecting frail seniors’ extreme vulnerability to COVID-19. Since the pandemic started in mid-March, those living in skilled nursing or residential care facilities represent 105 of the 136 county residents who have died.

In early August, the state Department of Public Health sent strike teams of infection prevention specialists to Sonoma County to help address outbreaks at local skilled nursing homes. The teams conducted onsite monitoring, guided the isolation of sick residents and beefed up infection control protocols at the most affected skilled nursing facilities.

Mase, the county health officer, said that while COVID-19 cases at skilled nursing homes have been decreasing, the number of cases at residential care facilities such as assisted living and board and care homes is on the rise. Mase said county public health staff are working closely with state social services staff to provide residential care homes the same kind of infection control guidance that skilled nursing homes received.

“We take this very seriously,” Mase said. “It’s terrible and heartbreaking for the families that we have had these deaths in these facilities.”

The state Department of Social Services, in a statement to The Press Democrat, said the safety of individuals at facilities they license is "our paramount concern.“ The department said it’s working with Sonoma County officials on the concerns raised by Zane.

Zane said she appreciate’s the state department’s immediate response to the county’s call for help. But she said she felt the department’s licensing division is not giving the matter the same attention it would give if the outbreak and deaths were occurring in facilities for children.

“If this was a congregate residential care (facility) for children, the public would be outraged, we would be on the front page of the newspaper,” she said. “You don’t have public outrage so we’re getting outraged.”

Dunaway, who is also the director of the county Area Agency on Aging, said he hopes the state can take the lead in bringing together various organizations and agencies to help create a safety net for facilities.

“It's a matter of a dire and immediate need for there to be as much collaboration as possible ... to bring together partners to the table to come up with some solutions, of course, for these facilities where people are disproportionately dying,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.