Patients at 1 in 3 Michigan nursing homes have coronavirus, records show

• June 15, 2020: More than 1,900 coronavirus deaths in Michigan nursing homes

Michigan released records on Friday confirming fears that the coronavirus is raging in state nursing homes, with 2,108 confirmed cases and dozens of homes with more than 20 cases apiece.

The records show nursing home patients account for at least 6 percent of Michigan’s total coronavirus caseload of nearly 37,000 as of Friday. 

The tally is certainly far higher since the new records don’t include nursing home patients who have recovered or have already died.

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COVID-19 cases in Michigan nursing homes

For the first time, the state has revealed which of Michigan's nearly 500 nursing homes have confirmed cases of COVID-19. Excluding those who have already recovered or died, there are over 2,100 residents battling the coronavirus. That's nearly 6 percent of all cases in the state and occur in 30 percent of facilities. Type in the name of a facility or a county to find those facilities with COVID-19 cases (NOTE: Homes with no cases do not appear in database.)

Southeast Michigan is at the heart of the most serious outbreaks.

In Wayne County alone, six nursing homes have more than 40 COVID-19 cases apiece, including Imperial Healthcare Centre in Dearborn Heights with 76 cases.

Statewide, 1 in 3 nursing homes — 141 of 476 —  had at least one case of coronavirus. Wayne County had 38 homes with one confirmed case, while there are 30 in Oakland County and 21 in Macomb County.

Wayne County nursing homes topped the state with 785 COVID-19 cases, followed by Oakland County with 455 cases and Macomb County with 345 cases.

“This is so concerning. COVID-19 in nursing homes is like pouring gasoline on a fire. These people are so vulnerable,” said Peter Gulick, an infectious disease specialist at Michigan State University.

The records were released after weeks of resistance from state and local officials, including the Detroit Health Department that said making records public might cause the facilities “undue stress”.

Bridge has reported on the issue for weeks, noting that at least 17 states had disclosed the names of nursing homes with known coronavirus infections and eight of those posted lists online.

Earlier this week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the state would reverse course, following criticism from advocates who had called the withholding of information a “travesty.”

Brian Lee, executive director of Families for Better Care, a Texas-based nonproift advocacy group, told Bridge this month that failing to release information was a “a disservice to residents and health care workers … who are out there wondering if there is an outbreak in a loved one’s home.” 

Friday’s release of data, however, does not include all the facilities that care for Michigan’s seniors. 

It doesn’t include, for instance, information on 292 licensed homes for the aged – homes requiring less medical care than nursing homes – and more than 4,200 licensed adult foster care homes that serve the disabled. Those facilities have a total bed capacity of about 57,000 residents. (In contrast, nursing homes care for about 40,000 seniors statewide.)

Next week, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is expected to release reporting on COVID-19 cases at long-term care facilities.

But even beyond the sheer scale of coronavirus nursing home spread revealed by this public reporting, cumulative state data also point to a rising COVID-19 toll on Michigan’s elderly.

On April 1, the median age of Michigan COVID-19 deaths was 72. By Thursday, according to state COVID-tracking, that median age had climbed to 76. Those  60 and older accounted for 86 percent of all 3,085 deaths, while those 80 and older accounted for 39 percent of all deaths.

Advocates for the elderly say these new disclosures highlight the need to funnel  public resources to long-term care facilities with multiple cases of COVID-19.

Sarah Slocum, co-director of the Program to Improve Eldercare at Altarum, an Ann Arbor-based nonprofit research and consulting firm, said that could include everything from protective gear such as masks and gowns to inspections of nursing homes with widespread outbreaks.

“That’s the value of this data, to direct additional resources that may not have been put in place yet. That’s the point of it all, to target resources.”

Union officials say workers at Michigan nursing homes are being asked to do their job without sufficient protective gear.

Andrea Acevedo, President of SEIU Healthcare Michigan, told ClickOnDetroit that workers are wearing masks for up to seven days when they should be discarded after one use.

Acevedo said SEIU officials have been delivering gloves and masks to employees at nursing homes. 

She said the union, which represents more than 5,000 nursing home workers, has donated 10,000 masks and 10,000 gloves to nursing homes.

The release of public information comes as news reports of nursing homes with multiple COVID-19 cases and deaths piled up in recent days:

• On April 18, an official at Hillsdale Hospital in rural southern Michigan reported that a county nursing home had 42 cases of COVID-19 among staff and residents, accounting for seven nursing home deaths among 10 total coronavirus deaths in Hillsdale County.

• A Genesee County nursing home reported 17 COVID-19 resident deaths on Saturday, with an additional 24 residents testing positive, seven of whom were hospitalized. Twenty-six employees tested positive.

• That followed reports  that 21 residents had died of COVID-19 at two Wayne County nursing homes, with 46 other residents with confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

Earlier this month, Wayne County officials told the Detroit Free Press that nursing home residents accounted for 94 of the county's 272 confirmed COVID-19 deaths (a count that does not include Detroit) as of April 10.

In Detroit, Mayor Mike Duggan has said about a quarter of all residents in the city’s 26 nursing homes had tested positive for the coronavirus.

National reports reflect similar numbers. A New York state report found that nearly half of the state’s COVID-19 deaths in the western part of the state were among nursing home residents.

Michigan’s move to public disclosure of nursing home COVID-19 cases follows an announcement by federal officials on Sunday that U.S. nursing homes will be required to inform residents, their families and representatives when residents or staff contract the illness.

It also follows an executive order Whitmer issued April 15 to protect residents and staff at long-term care facilities. Among other things, the order requires facilities to report confirmed cases of residents with COVID-19 to staff within 12 hours, and to the local health department and MDHHS within 24 hours.

As of Tuesday, MDHHS mandates that all long-term care facilities submit daily reports of COVID-19 cases and deaths to the department as well as their bed capacity and inventory of personal protective equipment.

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