The COVID-19 outbreak that impacted the Hilo Benioff Medical Center nursing home in mid-August has officially ended, hospital officials said.
“I feel confident that this shows that the protocols we have in place to respond to COVID — which seems to be an endemic virus that we are probably going to have to deal with again in the future — having these protocols to respond are so important,” said Kaui Chartrand, the administrator of the hospital’s Extended Care Center.
“With the staff’s diligence and attention to the protocols and adhering to them under the direction of a great leader — Rachel Salinas, our director of nursing —we’ve done really well with this current outbreak, and we have to remain diligent, remain vigilant, and be ready to respond again,” she said.
The assisted-living facility, which is home to 55 residents, saw 16 residents and 10 staff testing positive for the virus during the outbreak last month, Chartrand said. By the end of August, eight patients remained positive and in isolation, with one staff member also positive.
By the first week of September, the home was down to one patient still testing positive and needing to remain quarantined, Chartrand reported.
Last week, all staff and patients had been cleared, but two more rounds of surveillance testing took place to confirm everyone tested negative before the protocol was officially ended and the outbreak concluded on Sept. 13.
“None of our residents required to be sent to the acute setting in the hospital, which was really good,” Chartrand said. “We were able to care for them in their home.”
When the first resident of the nursing home tested positive on Aug. 7, Chartrand told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the facility began following COVID protocol, which included quarantining and isolating residents, treating all residents who tested positive with Paxlovid, and doing surveillance testing on all staff and residents twice per week.
Chartrand said the outbreak was caused by someone visiting the facility while being positive for the virus, and offered further advice for protecting kupuna in the community.
“We just have to continue to be aware and alert and, of course, whenever coming into a nursing home setting or a congregate setting like the extended care facility, take extra precaution if they do come in,” Chartrand said. “Once they come to long-term care (facilities), we have different guidelines. We are always offering surgical masks to our visitors. If they’re feeling well, we still offer it to them, and our staff are always using surgical masks just to take precaution.”
As of Sept. 8, the state’s Department of Health COVID dashboard showed 1.3 newly reported COVID cases per 100,000 people in Hawaii County over seven days. Statewide statistics on the dashboard showed 4.6 newly reported cases per 100,000 of the population for the same time period.
Chartrand said the previous outbreak in the facility was around this time last year, explaining that the small, tight-knit community of Hilo can lead to infections spreading through gatherings like graduation celebrations.
“We were able to complete our contact tracing where we were able to identify it was a visitor from the community,” she said of the recent outbreak. “(To visitors, we advise) to keep in mind where they’re coming, the type of setting they’re entering. If they’re sick, please visit at a later time — be conscientious of what we’re doing in the public, keeping ourselves safe. COVID is out there, it’s in our communities, especially when we’re focused on gatherings and community events.”
Email Kyveli Diener at kdiener@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
