Tennessee releases some virus data surrounding nursing homes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s top health officials on Friday released some data on confirmed coronavirus cases in the state’s nursing homes, but refrained from saying whether patients had died at those facilities.

The decision comes a few weeks after more than 100 people tested positive for the virus at a Tennessee nursing home, resulting in more than 10 deaths since. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services completed an investigation at the Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing on Monday and the survey results are forthcoming, according to the federal agency.

“It is up to the facility, be it the hospital or a long-term care facility, to disclose fatalities among patients or residents,” said Shelley Walker, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, an agency that has been hesitant to release detailed data during the virus outbreak in Tennessee.

However, Sumner Regional Medical Center spokesman Kyle Brogdon said Friday that the hospital — which had been treating the Gallatin nursing home residents from the outbreak — would no longer provide information about deaths of patients from the facility because the nursing home had since been reopened.

State health officials have said more than 70 residents and more than 30 staffers tested positive at the facility, which was temporarily evacuated but has since allowed some residents to return.

Friday’s latest data dump only shed light on where two or more virus cases have been reported among the staff or residents.

Those 10 facilities are: Trevecca Center for Rehabilitation and Healing LLC in Nashville ; Williamsburg Villas in Knoxville; The White House Assisted Living in Lafayette; Signature HealthCARE of Putnam County; Parkway Health and Rehabilitation Center in Memphis; Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing LLC; NHC Place Sumner in Gallatin; NHC HealthCare in Franklin; Fountains of Franklin and NHC Place at Cool Springs also in Franklin.

Meanwhile, the agency has maintained that it will continue to only releases coronavirus-related deaths at the county level.

Tennessee’s confirmed cases have grown to more than 4,800, with at least 98 confirmed deaths.

For the vast majority of people who have the coronavirus, symptoms clear up in several weeks without requiring hospitalization, but the consequences can be life-threatening, especially for older people and those with existing health problems.