Rep. Connolly calls for government to address deficiencies at COVID-ridden Annandale Healthcare Center

The Annandale Healthcare Center, at 6700 Columbia Pike, is run by CommuniCare.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11th District) is urging both the federal government and Virginia Department of Health to take action to improve conditions at the Annandale Healthcare Center (AHC). 

“It is critical that the facility successfully implements their plan of correction and that they continue to be monitored until they have shown that they are in substantial compliance of all requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Connolly says. 

In an Oct. 20 letter to Seema Verna, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Connolly points out that the AHC “experienced one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in a nursing home in our commonwealth, with 156 cases and 55 deaths among residents and staff.” 

A resident told the Annandale Blog there have been at least two or three additional cases in the past few weeks and staff are still not wearing face masks in patients’ rooms. 

Related story: Annandale Healthcare Center failed to tell patients’ families about its huge COVID outbreak

During two COVID-19 Focused Infection Control Surveys, Connolly states, “the facility was found to have ‘failed to ensure infection control measures were consistently implemented to prevent the development and/or transmission of a communicable disease (COVID-19) among staff and residents.’” 

Deficiencies observed during the first survey on May 7 found AHC staff failed to:

• adequately implement their planned screening process at shift change, as well as maintain social distancing; 
• dispose of personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent transmission of infection and to properly store reusable PPE; and 
• perform appropriate hand hygiene in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. 

The facility provided a plan of correction to come into compliance. However, a subsequent COVID-19 survey on July 23 found AHC staff failed to: 

• maintain physical distancing during the screening process and while on the elevator to prevent the possible transmission of infection;
• follow the facility’s screening process to include temperature checks and questions related to COVID exposure or symptoms; and
• perform appropriate hand hygiene.

“CMS determined that the severity and scope of these deficiencies created the potential for harm and that there was a pattern to the deficient practices,” Connolly states in the letter to CMS. As a result of those deficiencies, the AHC had the biggest and deadliest COVID outbreak of any long-term care facility in Virginia.

Connolly cites a recent U.S. Senate report, “The Cost of Inaction: 11 Deaths an Hour,” that documented failures to curb COVID infections at nursing homes. Between July 5 and Aug. 30, more than 16,800 nursing home residents and workers died of COVID-19. 

“This report makes clear that the Trump administration’s inaction at the beginning of this pandemic cost countless lives, and their continued incompetency continues to lead to needless suffering and loss of life,” Connolly states.

Related story: The Annandale Healthcare Center during COVID lockdown: ‘worse than prison’

The letter to the CMS administrators also notes that there are reports from AHC residents and family members that the facility did not effectively communicate with them about the severity of the outbreak. 

“For example,” the letter continues, “Chris Duncan, whose mother was a resident of the facility and who died of COVID-19, claims his mother was transferred to a hospital only at his repeated insistence. Following her passing, he faced obstacles in obtaining his mother’s belongings and medical records.” 

The Connolly letter cites other reports [from the Annandale Blog and other news sources] about families not informed about their loved one’s illnesses, residents confined to their rooms with no opportunity for exercise, windows bolted shut making it impossible to breathe fresh air, mixed up medications, vermin infestations, faulty plumbing, and much more. 

“These allegations, from before and during the pandemic, have led to residents concluding that the facility’s inadequate precautions have contributed to the facility’s high rate of COVID-19 cases and deaths,” Connolly states. 

Related story: Problem-plagued Annandale Healthcare Center accepts new patients, prepares for Phase 2

He calls upon the CMS to follow the recommendations from a report by the Coronavirus Commission on Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes to “increase specificity and expand breadth of guidance on communications between nursing home staff, residents, and families.” 

The CMS has the authority to take action against nursing homes that do not comply with federal requirements. Enforcement actions include termination of Medicare and Medicaid payments, civil monetary penalties, and closure of the facility. 

At least 84,000 long-term care facility residents and employees have died of COVID. Long-term care facility residents account for 40 percent of COVID deaths, even though they make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population. In Virginia, 50 percent of deaths are linked to nursing homes.