Franklin County surveying nursing homes after eleven coronavirus deaths

Starting Monday, the county health department is working with five nursing homes, including the Louisburg Nursing Center, where those eleven deaths occurred. 35 staff and residents have tested positive.

County Health Director Scott LaVigne says his office has been in phone contact with these facilities over the last few weeks to make sure they were up to date on CDC guidance.

Now, they're sending out a written prevention assessment tool to all the long-term care facilities in the the county to help find out what those facilities need.

"Our prevention efforts, we're starting to look at a lot more closely," Lavigne says. "The easiest outbreak to deal with is the one you don't have to deal with."

The new survey asks facility managers about supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), training needs, staffing levels, infection control measures and testing capabilities.

"We're not looking to the gotcha – that's not the intent," LaVigne tells WRAL News. "The intent is, if there are things people are identifying and they need help with, we want to be able to help with that."

"It puts it on on paper and says 'Okay, we really need to see what you're doing in these areas. We want to see it so that you're gonna be better able to – in the unlikely event that there is an outbreak – to help you,'" he explained.

LaVigne points out that these facilities are no longer allowing visitors. Some are not taking new patients, and many are using more PPE in hopes of keeping their residents safe from the coronavirus.

"When COVID-19 gets into a nursing facility, it's a fox in a henhouse. It's a terrible situation," he says.

As to why some facilities see outbreaks when others don't? LaVigne can't say.

"Even if you're doing everything right, this could still show up," he says, because it requires so much discipline over a prolonged period of time.

"It takes only one person breaking discipline only once to give it an in. That's all it takes," LaVigne says. "That's why infection control in nursing homes is such a serious thing."