Facility Blames Weather for Deaths

Emergency Preparedness

WSPA reported the tragic wrongful deaths at Pine Ridge Health and Rehabilitation Center nursing home. The ongoing investigation on how and why police discovered two dead residents at the nursing home. Police determined that staffing was “inadequate.” Only one licensed practical nurse and two certified nursing assistants were caring for the 98 vulnerable adults living in the home. Short staffing kills.

On Sunday, people called the police because of lack of staffing at the nursing home. Officials found two of the nursing home residents dead. Two others were in critical condition.

On Monday, Pine Ridge Health and Rehabilitation Center sent out “courtesy” calls to the families of residents. The call explained that staff members were unable to come in due to the weather. Davidson County Emergency Management “assisted” in providing care.

“This is a courtesy call from Pine Ridge. We just wanted to make sure that you were aware that during the night shift on … January 16th, we had scheduled a full staff, but due to inclement weather, some of the folks were not able to come in. As a result, Davidson County Emergency Management assisted us with staff during those shifts to ensure provision of care. Today’s staff has been able to get to work in ensuring the residents’ needs are met continually.”

The facility should have planned better. They knew the weather was going to be bad.

Free Tests

The Biden Administration announced free tests for individuals covered by a health insurance plan who purchase an over-the-counter COVID-19 diagnostic test that has been authorized, cleared or approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

A new policy requires insurance companies and health plans to cover eight free over-the-counter at-home tests per covered individual per month. For instance, a family of four all on the same plan would be able to get up to 32 of these tests covered by their health plan per month.