Holyoke Soldiers’ Home outbreak was ‘worst’ moment of COVID pandemic for Charlie Baker - MassLive.com | By The Perfect Enemy
The COVID-19 outbreak that ultimately claimed the lives of 84 veterans at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home represents the “biggest and worst” moment of the pandemic in Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker said.
Baker, in an interview with MassLive in his ceremonial State House office this week, solemnly reflected on the calls he made to more than 100 family members following the deaths of their loved ones during the summer of 2020.
“Some of those conversations were short and some of them lasted for over an hour. The hard part there was you couldn’t have a meeting, couldn’t put everyone in one room,” Baker said as he lamented the physical gathering restrictions prompted out of necessity by the virus. “But I wanted to give people a chance to be heard, and that was the only way I could think of that could actually give people a chance to be heard.”
Baker, speaking broadly about the tragedy with just days remaining in office, touted his administration’s overnight action to install “a whole new team” at the Soldiers’ Home in response to the sprawling outbreak.
Yet Baker, who throughout the pandemic has dodged criticism about his responsibility for the veterans’ deaths, made no mention to MassLive about a report from state Inspector General Glenn Cunha that found he and Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders sidestepped state law in hiring the Home’s former superintendent.
“That new team righted the ship, and in my opinion, probably saved dozens and dozens of lives that weren’t lost because they were there so quickly, and built a program and moved so quickly to implement it,” Baker told MassLive. “I think that was probably the hardest and most difficult issue we faced.”
Yet Cunha, in a report released in late April, found that Sudders met only with Bennett Walsh — who was ousted on March 30, 2020, in the throes of the outbreak — instead of with three prospective superintendents recommended by the home’s board of trustees. And Baker ended up appointing Walsh superintendent without allowing the trustees to complete the hiring process.
Gov. Charlie Baker, right, swears in Bennett Walsh as superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in July 2016. Looking on are Health and Human Services secretary Marylou Sudders and Francisco A. Urena, then the secretary of Veterans’ Services.The Republican file
A Boston Globe Spotlight report showed Walsh landed the superintendent post through a series of Western Massachusetts political connections, with ties extending to the governor. Walsh, who lacked health care management experience, was disengaged from employees and created a hostile workplace environment, according to the inspector general’s report.
The state earlier this year agreed to pay $56 million to the victims of the Soldiers’ Home outbreak, coming nearly two years after plaintiffs filed a $176 million class action lawsuit in federal court against state officials and former leaders at the home.
“I think the fact that people engaged in what I would describe as a good-faith discussion about how to deal with this issue was a positive one,” Baker said in a radio interview hours after the settlement agreement was announced in May. “And I’m glad we have a resolution.”
The Baker administration also filed legislation to overhaul governance and oversight at the Soldiers’ Home.
Baker told MassLive that some of the earliest days of the pandemic felt like they lasted for a year. During that time, Baker and officials learned just how vulnerable senior citizens and long-term care settings were to the highly contagious coronavirus.
When Massachusetts ramped up COVID testing in early April, officials were alarmed to discover the vast majority of residents at a North Shore nursing home tested positive for the virus without showing any symptoms.
Still, they were “every bit as contagious as everybody else,” Baker said. That changed how the administration tackled COVID, Baker said, especially in the continuing care community.
“I mean, testing, testing, testing, testing, testing originally led by the National Guard and then eventually led by other entities that came in behind them,” Baker said, as he praised members for their efforts supporting both COVID testing and vaccination efforts.
“I think the whole question about knowing something about where the virus was and what it was doing, and getting really aggressive and expansive about the way we put testing infrastructure in place was probably one of the biggest lessons we learned early on,” Baker continued. “And most of it came from our experience in long-term care.”
#Coronavirus, #LongTermCare
Published on The Perfect Enemy at https://bit.ly/3GsvLNJ.
Comments
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated.