The weeks were murky since Arlene Wiseman’s last visit with her sister, Geri Doyle, in late February at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton, where Ms. Doyle had been living for about a year. Information was inconsistent and hard to come by, Ms. Wiseman said — up until Ms. Doyle died of Covid-19 at the nursing home on April 24. The longtime East Hampton resident was 86 years old.
“We just didn’t know how she was doing for the longest time. There was no communication with her and [it was] difficult to communicate with the facility,” Ms. Wiseman said by phone this week. “We knew they were obviously overburdened. I understand that. It’s an awful thing that happened and nobody was prepared for it. Information was coming out slowly and people were adapting as it happened.”
As far as anyone can tell, Ms. Doyle’s death is one of 19 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing that are confirmed, or presumed to be, from Covid-19. The most recent data released by New York State on Tuesday, which take into account information available between March 1 and May 3, show 631 such deaths across Suffolk County’s nursing homes and adult care facilities and 4,813 in all of New York State.
“The nursing home is the optimum feeding ground for this virus: vulnerable people in a congregate facility . . . where it can spread like wildfire through dry grass,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on April 19.
More than 64 percent of the 19,645 New Yorkers who died of Covid-19 as of Tuesday were age 60 or older, state data show, and in the vast majority of those deaths, people had at least one underlying medical condition.
The Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing did not return calls for comment this week.
“I feel she didn’t have to die. She is a victim,” Ms. Wiseman said of her sister. “More could have been done and we’re all upset about it. If you know these people are susceptible and vulnerable people, then why aren’t you putting more thought and processes into how you’re going to protect them? . . . I feel that elderly people died unnecessarily.”
Nursing homes emerged as an epicenter of Covid-19 deaths in late February and early March at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., just outside of Seattle, where at least 80 residents have tested positive for the virus and at least 35 residents have died of it, according to The New York Times. And New Hampshire Public Radio reported Tuesday that about 77 percent of that state’s 86 deaths thus far “are linked to outbreaks at nursing homes or similar institutions.”
The Atlantic magazine cited national health care experts when it wrote on April 29 that “structural weaknesses endemic to America’s long-term-care system — underinvestment, understaffing, and the use of low-wage employees — have made a dangerous situation much more deadly.”
“Nursing home residents aren’t getting half of our resources or half of our attention, yet they account for roughly half the deaths,” David Grabowski, a health care policy professor at Harvard Medical School, told The Atlantic.
New York State has reported nine Covid-19 deaths at the Westhampton Care Center, which also did not return requests for comment this week.
The state also showed 13 deaths at Peconic Bay Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation in Riverhead, which is part of the Peconic Bay Medical Center. However, they were actually hospital patients who were discharged into “a surge unit that was created at the skilled nursing facility” after the short-term rehabilitation patients were sent home and the long-term residents were isolated, according to Andy Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of the Peconic Bay Medical Center.
“Those patients that were moved into those units were largely Covid-19 hospice patients,” Mr. Mitchell said yesterday. “The original patients of the skilled nursing facility, none of them contracted or died from Covid. It was simply overflow from the hospital.”
There were 12 deaths reported at Peconic Landing in Greenport, a retirement community.
Peconic Landing had shut out all nonessential visitors beginning March 9, and others soon followed suit. In a lengthy letter published on its website on April 29, Robert J. Syron, president and C.E.O. of Peconic Landing, said the facility had “rapidly changed how we provide all service and care to protect the entire Peconic Landing family of over 700 lives from Covid-19.”
“By the time we started receiving protocols from the Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control, we found we were most often ahead of their directives,” Mr. Syron said.
Peconic Landing — which offers multiple levels of care and different types of housing — has by far been the most forthright about how far Covid-19 spread has through its community. As of April 29, there were 26 positive cases, 12 deaths, 9 recoveries, and 5 in the process of recovering. Out of 377 employees, 40 had tested positive for Covid-19. They are recovering on paid sick leave, Mr. Syron said.
“Our staffing levels remain high and we are fully able to provide services and care across our campus,” he said. “Due to our early efforts to secure [personal protective equipment] as well as the many generous donations we have received . . . we have the P.P.E. we need to ensure the safety of our members and our team and reduce the risk of spread.”
Harvey Feinstein, 91, who has lived at Peconic Landing for 17 years, said he feels safe there, and not nervous, but sort of isolated.
“It’s a very, very wonderful place to be at this time in history, with everybody worried about the virus,” he said. “We used to have meals in the dining room, so it was nice having dinner every night with friends. . . . That type of socializing that was one of the wonderful things about living here is no more.”
“Who would’ve expected this?” Mr. Feinstein continued. “But I’m lucky because I have a beautiful cottage. . . . It’s not like I’m living locked up with nothing to look at. I have neighbors and we wave to each other and talk to each other.”
In Riverhead, the Acadia Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation has had two confirmed Covid-19 deaths and has had “a few” staff members test positive for the virus. “Since all workers are screened prior to entering the building, the possibility exists that Covid transmission occurred via the most feared method: an asymptomatic positive Covid person,” Mary Ann Mangels, an administrator there, wrote in an April 24 statement. “The unit in question is under quarantine and the residents’ family members have all been made aware. All affected residents are receiving aggressive treatment and, although we are in the early stages of this illness, the majority of them are responding well to treatment.”
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on Tuesday said the county stands ready to support its nursing homes and adult care facilities. “We have continually reached out to [them] to see what they need, to check in on them,” he said. “In certain cases we’ve been distributing P.P.E. [and] following up with calls to see if there are shortages. . . . The nursing home staffs are really operating in the most challenging environment.”