Department of Health Places Temporary Manager at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center 

Harrisburg, PA – Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine today announced that the department has placed a temporary manager at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Beaver, Beaver County.

“Our temporary manager will assist with the safe operations of the facility and provide information directly to the department regarding the health of residents and the needs of patients and staff,” Dr. Levine said. “COVID-19 is a particularly challenging situation for congregate care settings, and we are committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable. Public health and safety are and always will be the department’s number one priority.”

The temporary manager, Allaire Health Services, of New Jersey, will remain in place until Brighton is able to achieve substantial compliance with the recommendations or the rate of infection at Brighton is substantially reduced. The department will pay the fees and costs for the temporary management from the state’s civil monetary penalty fund; however, Brighton still remains responsible for all expenses in maintaining the operation of the facility including: payroll; food costs; medications and supplies; payment for contracted services; facility lease, operation and maintenance costs; liability insurance and other operational costs.

The Pennsylvania National Guard is providing support to the care of patients at the facility from May 11 to May 18. By May 18, staff contracted by the owners of Brighton will be on site to help care for patients.

“We will continue to be actively involved in this facility, including performing inspections,” Dr. Levine said.

Since the start of COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes, the department has worked to assist facilities in need through a number of different avenues, including:

• Operational assistance and guidance from the quality assurance team, healthcare acquired infection (HAI) team, ECRI, the Patient Safety Authority and the Pennsylvania National Guard;
• Sharing information through bulletin boards, nursing home associations, and our normal channels of communication such as Health Alert Network messages;
• Prioritizing nursing homes and long-term care facilities to receive PPE, and for testing among symptomatic individuals.

On March 18^th, guidance was provided to nursing homes to assist facilities in the decision-making processes on cohorting, visitation and testing of employees and staff.

The department also has been working with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) who has outlined guidance on inspections of health care facilities, including nursing homes.

Annual inspections are not occurring, but complaint, infection control and other surveys are taking place. While these surveys are being done virtually, in-person surveys are also being conducted as needed and a number of in-person surveys have already occurred.

Close to 1,700 distributions of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been sent to nursing homes and additional long-term care facilities. This includes distributions of materials to all nursing homes. Among items sent to all health care facilities, the department has shipped close to 5 million N95 masks, more than 282,000 gowns, more than 1.6 million procedure masks, close to 1.47 million gloves, more than 134,000 face shields and more than 170,000 bottles of hand sanitizer.

The Wolf Administration stresses the role Pennsylvanians play in helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19:

• Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer if soap and water are not available.
• Cover any coughs or sneezes with your elbow, not your hands.
• Clean surfaces frequently.
• Stay home to avoid spreading COVID-19, especially if you are unwell.
• If you must go out for a life-sustaining reason, please wear a mask

(Harrisburg, Pa.) Pa. Governor Tom Wolf today reminded Pennsylvanians that the state’s actions to stop the spread of COVID-19 are working and that we must stay the course and follow the law or there will be negative consequences.

The governor reiterated that reopening too soon can cause COVID-19 to spread, for cases and deaths to spike and for closures to be reinstated perhaps for much longer.

Reopening decisions are based on the advice of scientists, medical professionals, and the state’s epidemiologists. Factors that inform decisions include case counts, modeling, geographic location, contact tracing and testing capabilities for individual counties, regions, and the state. Each county is considered individually before deciding on placement into the red, yellow or green phases. Yellow counties have a lower risk of virus spread. Red counties have a higher risk of virus spread.

“I cannot allow residents in a red county to get sick because their local officials can’t see the invisible risk of the virus in their community,” Wolf said. “So, I must, and I will impose consequences if a county locally lifts restrictions when it has not yet been given the go-ahead by the state.”

The governor outlined the following consequences to counties that do not abide by the law to remain closed:

• Counties will not be eligible for federal stimulus discretionary funds the state receives and intends to provide to counties with populations of fewer than 500,000.

• Businesses in counties that do not abide by the law will no longer be eligible for business liability insurance and the protections it provides. The Pennsylvania Department of Insurance released details of this earlier today.

• Restaurants that reopen for dine-in service in counties that have not been authorized to reopen will be at risk of losing their liquor license.
• County residents receiving unemployment compensation will be able to continue to receive benefits even if their employer reopens. Employees may choose not to return out of concern for personal safety and safety of co-workers.

“This is not a time to give up,” Wolf said. “This is a time to rededicate ourselves to the task of beating this virus. I intend to keep fighting, and I believe that the overwhelming majority of my fellow Pennsylvanians intend to keep fighting it too. With that unity, I know we can win.”

To Hear Gov. Wolf’s Comments Press Play below:

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The Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage & Tavern Association is calling on Gov. Tom Wolf to increase services in yellow areas as they wait for the final move to the green phase of reopening.

The group is also asking for limited indoor and outdoor seating, in the yellow phase of reopening, with strict social distancing.

In a letter to the Wolf, the executive director of the group, Chuck Moran said “They were the first Pennsylvania businesses ordered to cease operations and have been deprived of most sources of income for almost eight weeks now. All are under enormous economic pressure, and we are concerned that this will cause permanent closures for many.”

Ohio bars and restaurants are already moving toward limited outdoor seating this Friday, officials said. They want similar practices here in Pennsylvania. They are reporting that bars and restaurants in Pa have lost over $1.8 billion in the month of April.