LAKE WORTH, Texas — Lake Worth Nursing Home was under investigation years before its residents were relocated by request of the state health department.
Medstar began moving all 63 residents to other nursing homes Wednesday. About half of them tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a MedStar spokesperson.
The move comes as the state is investigating the facility’s compliance with health and safety regulations.
It’s not the first time the facility was under investigation.
In 2017, Lake Worth Nursing Home was ordered to pay $1,375 per day from Feb. 2 through March 21, according to the Federal Department of Health and Human Services.
The fine is tied to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which reported the facility served residents food in unsanitary conditions, failed to keep vending machines stocked with food items and failed to report several instances of abuse.
A 26-year-old resident attacked four residents on four separate occasions, according to the Centers.
Lake Worth Nursing Home received one out of five stars in its overall rating by Medicare.
The Medicare website ranks the nursing home “much below average” in recent health inspections and when it comes to the number of nurses per resident.
A spokesperson for Texas Health and Human Services did not explain what launched the current investigation but did say with investigations like these, a nursing home could lose its license or face other disciplinary action.
The residents were split between two different nursing homes on Wednesday.
The staff at the nursing homes "know that many of them are coronavirus positive, so they’re going to be cared for, isolated, quarantined in certain areas and they have the capacity to do that," said MedStar spokesman Matt Zavadsky.
At a COVID-19 webinar on July 2 for Texas nursing homes, the Texas Department of Health and Human Services said there was a surge in Tarrant County, along with Bexar, Harris and Travis counties.
"Heightened awareness and extra caution is needed," the department said.
There have been 2,017 positive cases at nursing homes in the North Texas region. There have been 283 deaths and 986 recoveries.
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