State lacks facility for long-term care residents who test positive for coronavirus

WASHINGTON — Washington has no facility to separate long-term care residents who test positive for COVID-19 from those who don’t, and officials say they don’t know when they will.

That is not sitting well with people who have relatives in one of the more than 4,000 facilities in the state.

Over nearly two long months, 33 elderly residents of Life Care Center of Kirkland died from COVID-19.

Yet even now the state has no facility to do what they finally did here, separate residents who are positive from those who are not.

“That’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous,” said Scott Sedlacek.

He has seen up close the calamity that befell Life Care of Kirkland.

He moved his 86-year-old father here just days before the coronavirus took deadly hold.

His father tested positive for coronavirus, and soon, so did he.

“We’re just not doing it right,” said Sedlacek. “We’re not taking care of the people that need to be taken care of the most.”

And, he says, whatever is happening is not happening very quickly.

“Ah, that’s an understatement,” he said.

As of Thursday, 204 long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, have reported positive cases for COVID-19, including nursing homes. But Bill Moss, Assistant Secretary for Aging and Long-Term Support Administration, conceded that DSHS still doesn’t have a facility to care for those who test positive.

“And we are talking about developing COVID specialized facilities to be able to allow for cohorting residents that are positive for COVID in an enhanced specific facility,” said Moss.

When pressed on when it might be up and running, he said, “That is not happening today but we expect we will be getting there very soon.”

Scott Sedlacek managed to recover from a serious case of the disease. His father has never shown symptoms.

But he has harsh words for how the state has handled caring for some of its most vulnerable citizens, many who may have paid with their lives.

“I think they’ve done a horrid job,” he said.

On April 1, the state announced it had bought a 165-bed nursing facility to move positive COVID-19 patients.

But as of now, no one can say when it will be ready for them.

© 2020 Cox Media Group