Rocky Mount nursing home opens its COVID-19 unit to discharged hospital patients

Carrolton of Nash, a facility based in Rocky Mount, opened its 23-bed COVID-19 unit last March to treat nursing home residents who had contracted the illness.

"We want to be a part of this because this is an ongoing pandemic that we see affects a lot of people each and every day," said Peggy Bullock, the nursing home’s administrator. "We feel like that, if there’s anything that we can do to help the residents of Nash County [and] Edgecombe County, that’s who we are. And why not help anybody that’s in need with COVID as well?"

The facility’s nursing home unit partnered with Nash UNC to take in discharged patients. The hospital can handle 90 coronavirus patients and currently has 41.

A Nash UNC spokesperson says most "next level" care facilities require patients to quarantine for 21 days before they will be taken in, but because Carrolton at Nash has a unit already set up to take care of COVID-19 patients, it’s open to taking them in.

"We are considered sort of like a step-down unit from the hospital," Bullock said. "So, we can provide skilled nursing services for a resident with COVID or any type of co-morbidity that they would not necessarily be able to get at home."

Bridget Eason, who heads the unit as Carrolton's director of nursing care, also makes sure all safety precautions are followed to ensure the virus doesn’t leave the unit.

"It actually is like a mini hospital," Eason said, noting rooms are specially ventilated and anyone working on the unit uses a separate entrance.

"[Everything] down to dietary serving trays, all of [it] is treated as a separate unit in the building," she said. "We have nurses that are used to dealing with residents with high acuity levels. We have physical therapists, we have nursing assistants, and all of those are like dedicated staff to that unit."

Carrolton tests all residents twice a week so any new coronavirus outbreaks are contained.