PA National Guard at Drums nursing home for COVID situation

Jan. 20—Members of the Pennsylvania National Guard were assigned to the Kadima at Luzerne nursing home in Drums to assist in a COVID-19 situation.

Army Lt. Col. Keith Hickox, public affairs officer at Fort Indiantown Gap, confirmed that the Guard arrived Sunday and were expected to stay until Friday.

"The assisting team of 14 Guard members contains both medical and general purpose personnel," Hickox said.

He noted that the staff assistance mission will help replace a variety of Kadima staff members who are not available due to COVID-19 quarantines or other reasons.

"Our medical personnel are able to help with non-acute care, such as taking vital signs of residents, and our general purpose personnel can assist with many daily operations such as delivering meals or cleaning the facility," Hickox explained.

A message for Kadima's nursing home administrator was not immediately returned to the Standard-Speaker.

According to information from the Department of Health, between one and four residents and one and four staff members have positive COVID test results. The department doesn't make specific numbers available until the count reaches five or more. Its latest online data noted that no deaths have been attributed to the virus there.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which also requires nursing homes to report data, have no information on Kadima. CMS fined the Drums facility $650 in December for failing to report the data.

Hickox noted that the Guard has assisted nearly 100 long-term care facilities across the state with nearly 40 staff assistance missions like the one ongoing at Kadima.

In mid-November, National Guard soldiers and airmen were assigned to Ridgeview Healthcare and Rehabilitation in Shenandoah Heights. A month earlier, they were stationed at the Shenandoah Senior Living Community.

The connection between the National Guard and the affected facilities is not a direct one but comes through the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the state Department of Health, Hickox said.

Hickox said many wrongly assume the Guard is called in to assist when case numbers surge, but in most instances it has to do with staffing issues at the facility.

Contact the writer: jwhalen@standardspeaker.com; 570-501-3592.

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