Long-term care facilities responsible for high death rate in Portage county
Portage county currently has one of the highest mortality and death rates in Ohio.
Despite being the 20th most populated county in the state, Portage county is currently 10th in the state for mortality rates at 14.49%. This surpasses other communities with a similar population size of more than 162,000. Franklin County is the most populated county in the state with a population of over 1.3 million residents and has one of the smallest mortality rates at 2.72%.
For comparison, in Franklin county, out of every 100 people who have been infected with the coronavirus, less than 3 people have died. In Portage county, out of every 100 people who have been infected, just over 14 have died.
On Thursday, the Portage County Health Commissioner addressed the issue and said it’s because of more than 50 long-term care facilities in the community.
Portage County Health Commissioner Joseph Diorio said it’s hard to follow social distancing orders inside of these facilities.
“When you’re in a situation such as a long-term care facility and you have people grouped together who are in a relatively small area, and you’re not able to space them out adequately,” Diorio said, residents are more at risk to become ill. “All the congregate care settings, they don’t have the ability to spread out and increase social distancing,” he said.
Diorio said with so many people in such a small setting, the virus spreads quickly.
“Some of them have met their demise through hospice care because of the fact their clinical diagnosis is not a good outcome and their body is just not going to be able to sustain it,” he said.
The Ohio Department of Health currently lists three long-term care facilities in Portage County with confirmed cases of the virus.
They include: Anna Maria of Aurora with 16, Arbors at Streetsboro with 22, Woodlands Health and Rehabilitation Center in Ravenna with 14.
Prior to the updated list being published on the Ohio Department of Health website, Stow-Glen Retirement Village was previously listed with multiple cases of the coronavirus. However, the facility has been removed. The facility confirmed on Facebook it has several positive cases.
The previous list which identified Stow-Glen Retirement Village as a source of coronavirus cases was removed to correct inaccuracies. Prior to the corrections, it was the facilities responsibility to report cases to the health department. It will now be the health departments job to count cases individually rather than relying on the facility to do so.
The list also previously reported both staff member and patient cases. It will now only report confirmed patient cases.
The numbers reported by the Ohio state health department listed on the long-term facilities page are not active cases and some patients may have recovered.
The cases from the three facilities account for more than a quarter of the total number of coronavirus cases in Portage County. At the time of the press conference, Diorio said he was not able to release how many deaths came from these facilities.
“The number of people that have passed away is very complex,” Diorio said.
“It’s just unfortunate that we lose anyone,”
He said a majority of the deaths in the county were because patients either had an underlying condition or do not resuscitate orders. “It’s just unfortunate that we lose anyone,” Diorio said.
However, the most recent health inspection for Arbors at Streetsboro documented pages of health citations, including improper food handling. Arbors occurred 13 citations during the inspection. The facility was given a much below average rating.
Anna Maria of Aurora had two citations during their most recent health inspection. One citation involved improper food handling.
Woodlands Health and Rehabilitation Center only had one citation and was given a much above average rating.
The average number of health citations for long-term care facilities in Ohio is 8.8.
Becky Lehman, the public information officer for the Portage County Health District, failed to respond to repeated requests for comment on whether the deaths from the senior centers made upa majority of those in Portage County.
In a statement obtained by the Record Courier, Melanie Amato, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Health, said the number of deaths at these facilities will appear on the department website next week.
