Report: New Hampshire Veterans Home meets COVID-19 safety standards

(The Center Square) – An internal state investigation of the New Hampshire Veterans Home, where 37 residents died amid a COVID-19 outbreak last year, has concluded that the 250-bed facility meets federal and state health and safety standards.

The report, released last week by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, noted that staff members didn’t always follow the best hygienic practices but concluded that overall the facility’s COVID-19 infection prevention and control protocols were sufficient to prevent future outbreaks.

“There are adequate supplies to clean and disinfect the facility multiple times throughout the day, including increased frequency during the outbreak within the facility,” the report’s authors wrote. “Current staffing, PPE supply, and testing capabilities are adequate to handle an outbreak in the facility, should one occur.”

The state agency noted that the veterans home, like many nursing facilities, has struggled amid a lack of gowns, masks and other protective equipment during the height of the pandemic, but it now has an adequate supply.

A COVID-19 outbreak at the Tilton veterans home, which was first reported on Nov. 10, sickened more than 190 and resulted in 37 deaths, according to state officials.

The review, conducted by HHS’s Health Care Associated Infections Program and Congregate Settings Unit, only covered COVID-19 protocols observed during a one day visit to the facility and not Gov. Chris Sununu’s handling of the outbreak.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Committee is conducting a separate investigation of the outbreak, at Sununu’s request. Details of the probe have not been released.

As of mid-March, more than 90% of the residents at the veterans home had received COVID-19 vaccines, according to the report. About 50% of the staff have been vaccinated at the time of the inspection.

At a news briefing last week, Sununu welcomed the report’s generally positive findings but noted that “like many facilities across the country, there were issues.”

Democrats have criticized Sununu for not acting quickly enough to address the outbreak and have called for an independent state investigation.

New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Raymond Buckley ripped the report as “a disgrace to our veterans, to their families, and to the staff … who deserve answers on the outbreak.”

“It’s absolutely shameful that Sununu has refused to actually investigate the cause of the outbreak and protect the health and safety of our veterans and nursing home staff – and instead is just trying to protect his political future and cover up his failure to mitigate the outbreak,” Buckley said in a statement.

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