COVID-19 outbreaks ongoing in two Black Mountain nursing homes
NCDHHS report shows 98 cases and 10 deaths in local facilities
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
September 2, 2020
The Black Mountain Neuro-Medical Treatment Center is one of two local facilities reporting COVID-19 outbreaks. Photo by Fred McCormick
Two Black Mountain nursing homes are among those listed on the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services weekly report of ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks in congregate living facilities.
Black Mountain Neuro-Medical Center, a skilled nursing facility that serves 47 counties and is one of three such institutions operated by the state, is reporting a total of 52 cases and five deaths. Mountain Ridge Health and Rehab, owned and operated by Regency Care, has also confirmed five deaths from 46 total cases of COVID-19, as of the Sept. 1 update.
The listing includes more than 300 facilities throughout the state, categorizing settings as nursing homes, residential care, correctional facilities or “other.” Nine Buncombe County nursing homes and one residential care program have reported outbreaks, which is defined in the report “as two or more laboratory-confirmed cases.” An outbreak is considered over once no evidence of continued transmission is detected. The state began publishing the report on its online COVID-19 dashboard in June.
Twenty-five staff and 27 residents at Black Mountain Center, a specialized skilled nursing facility with a 165-bed capacity, have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the report, which also lists all five deaths as residents. The long-term care institution provides services for adults with chronic and complex medical conditions with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Mountain Ridge, a 100-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility in Ridgecrest, has confirmed 13 cases of COVID-19 in staff and 33 in residents. Five residents have died from the virus.
Of the 72 deaths related to COVID-19 that have been reported in Buncombe County, officials say the majority have been associated with outbreaks in long-term care facilities.
Due to its classification as a nationally notifiable disease, cases of COVID-19 are reported to the Center for Disease Control and processed through the agency’s National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. Guidelines for the NNDSS require cases be recorded within the jurisdiction of the person’s “usual residence,” which the U.S. Census Bureau defines as “the place where a person lives and sleeps most of the time.” Some patients in skilled nursing facilities meet the residency requirement under this definition.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 dashboard shows 94 confirmed cases of the virus in the 28711 zip code, which encompasses all of Black Mountain. The data reported by the page does not indicate how many of those cases are in congregate living facilities.