Survey: 3 in 4 California nursing home workers say staff have had COVID-19

An overwhelming number of nursing assistants and other employees at skilling nursing facilities across the state say their workplaces have had known or suspected COVID-19 cases among staff, particularly at facilities with high populations of Black or Latino residents, a new statewide survey found.

The survey, conducted by the California Health Care Foundation, found that 76 percent of certified nurse assistants reported knowing about positive or suspected positive cases among staff at their facilities. That number increased to 81 percent among staff who said they work in facilities with a large proportion of Black and Latino residents. The lack of personal protective equipment -- gowns, masks and gloves -- continues to be a problem, with 23 percent of workers saying they don't have enough, and almost 20 percent of those surveyed said they can get tested only some of the time or not at all.

"Frontline health workers in nursing homes are reporting disturbingly high numbers of COVID-19 cases among the staff of these facilities," said Kristof Stremikis, director of market analysis and insight at the California Health Care Foundation, in a written statement. "Many are concerned about their facility's ability to respond to infections when they occur."

About one in four of the respondents said they were "not confident" in their facility's ability to handle an outbreak.

The foundation's survey polled 353 employees at California skilled nursing facilities, including 285 certified nurse assistants, as well as janitorial, laundry and food service staff.

The findings about the rate of infection is in line with other reporting. The state health department's data shows that at least 11,093 health care workers on long-term care facilities and nursing homes have tested positive for COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic, and 102 of them have died.

Of the patients in the state's 1,223 nursing homes, at least 16,033 have had confirmed COVID-19 cases, and at least 2,870 have died. Nursing home deaths represent roughly 40 percent of COVID-19 deaths statewide, despite accounting for only about 7 percent of the state's more than 366,000 cases.

In the Bay Area, the virus has severely affected several nursing homes. Recent outbreaks include Millbrae Skilled Care, where state data shows 16 patients and at least one worker have died. Since the pandemic, a total of 135 residents and workers there were infected. At ManorCare Health Services Tice Valley in Walnut Creek, 89 patients and 36 workers have been infected with COVID-19, and at least one resident has died. At San Miguel Villa in Concord, 20 patients and at least one staff member have died from COVID-19 after the virus infected 64 residents and 17 staff members, according to the state's data. The state does not specify the number of deaths if it is fewer than 11.

California health officials at the end of May told nursing homes to test patients and staff but left it up to individual facilities to work with local health departments to get it done.

In Contra Costa County, health officials created a plan to do baseline testing, and then test staff members once per month, the health director told the Board of Supervisors last month. San Mateo County officials have said nursing homes are responsible for rolling out testing but provided a "strategy" to help them. If those nursing facilities allow visitation -- which the state recently allowed under certain rules -- they must have implemented that strategy.

Nursing home operators across the country say that even with testing, the delay in getting testing results present problems for stemming the spread of the virus. The American Health Care Association in a recent letter to governors noted that a survey of their members found that 87 percent of nursing homes and assisted living communities said it was taking two or more days to get test results back from labs, and 24 percent said it was taking five or more days.

"Given the fact that the level of COVID in the community surrounding a nursing home is a leading indicator of cases in the facility," stated the letter, signed by the association's president, Mark Parkinson, "the major spikes of COVID cases in many states comes at a very challenging time as many states plan the reopening of long term care facilities and return of visitations from loved ones."

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