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Officials call for “immediate investigation” of Chester County nursing home over COVID-19 concerns

By
Updated  April 29, 2020 8:49pm EDT
Coronavirus
FOX 29 Philadelphia

Officials call for immediate investigation of Chester County nursing home over COVID-19 concerns

FOX 29's Jeff Cole reports.

SPRING CITY, Pa. - The Southeastern Veterans Center is a sprawling state-run nursing home for veterans in Spring City, Chester County. The facility is under fire for what state and local officials believe is a high number of deaths from COVID-19 and concerns about quality of care.

FULL COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS

"It’s hard to hear these stories of staff knowing it is wrong watching people they’ve taken care of for years literally die in a week," State Senator Katie Muth (D) told FOX 29.

Senator Muth says she’s heard from staff in the center, who allege the falsifying of documents, improper testing, and a lack of isolation for COVID-19 positive residents. Muth and the Chester County coroner are calling for an “immediate investigation” of the facility and claim 28 people have died from the virus as of Monday.

"The numbers out of Chester County have us very concerned, have me very concerned, so we’re doing a deep dive into this to make sure the workers and veterans in the facility have the protections they need," Pa. Auditor General:  Eugene DePasquale said.

RELATED: Chester County Health Department adds COVID-19 data for long term care facilities

On the phone, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs said she would not provide the number of COVID-19 deaths for each of the six veterans homes the state runs and reported the total number system-wide was only 16.

She argued the agency had taken action to battle the virus, including putting infection controls in the nursing homes, ending outing, and putting a hold on new admissions. By phone, the county coroner said her number of 28 deaths came directly from Southeastern Center staff, which has now stopped reporting to her office.

Senator Muth is calling for “rapid intervention.”

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