The Seattle nursing home where at least 40 people have died from coronavirus is facing a $600,000 fine from federal authorities for placing its residents in danger amid the pandemic. 

The Life Care Center of Kirkland is where the coronavirus outbreak in the US initially took hold and is the facility where the largest number of cases have been linked to so far. 

Federal health officials and state regulators inspected Life Care on March 16 as coronavirus cases were growing rapidly in Washington state.   

They found serious infractions that they said placed residents in immediate danger, including how Life Care failed to manage sick residents when the coronavirus outbreak first started.  

Authorities said Life Care had at least partially fixed the most serious problems by the time they conducted follow-up inspection in last weekend.

















The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed a fine of $611,000 but said that could be adjusted based on how Life Care continued to correct the remaining issues. 

Among the most serious issues regulators found was the center's failure to rapidly identify and manage sick residents when the coronavirus outbreak took hold in mid-February.  

Regulators also found Life Care failed to notify the Washington health department about the increasing rate of respiratory infections among its residents and did not have a back plan when its main doctor became sick.  

CMS notified Life Care on March 18 that it had 23 days to remedy violations that placed residents at immediate jeopardy before it would be terminated as a Medicare provider. 

The agency on Wednesday extended that period saying Life Care must fix all remaining issues by September 16. 

Among the remaining issues is whether Life Care has a medical director coordinating care at the facility and whether it is properly protecting patient records. 

The 40 deaths at Life Care are among the 164 coronvirus deaths recorded in the Seattle area. 

Washington state's death toll has now increased to 254 while the number of infections has risen to nearly 6,000.






The Life Care Center of Kirkland in Seattle is where the coronavirus outbreak in the US initially took hold and is the facility where the largest number of cases have been linked to so far. Pictured above is a resident being taken by paramedics on March 24







A nurse is pictured above working in the room of a patient who has tested positive for the coronavirus at the Life Care Center in Kirkland in early March







A woman speaks on the phone to her sick mother after the Life Care center banned visitors to stop the spread of the coronavirus


Deaths there are now not increasing as much as they are in other US states despite the fact that Washington was the epicenter of the country's outbreak a month ago.

Washington recorded the first known coronavirus case in the US and also the first few deaths of the pandemic before it started spreading rapidly across the country. 

At one point, Washington had recorded 37 of the country's first 50 fatal outbreaks.

The number of statewide cases surged following the outbreak at the Life Care nursing home.  






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Washington's first deaths were reported on February 29 after two people - one who was a resident at the Life Care nursing home - died in the same Seattle hospital.

Following the outbreak, the state enforced strict social distancing measures by banning large gatherings in late February and closing schools in early March.

Non-essential workplaces also shut down and the majority of residents started self-isolating as they stayed at home.

There was cautious optimism this week that Washington state may now be nearing the peak of the pandemic or seeing the effects of its strict social distancing measures. 

King County health director Jeff Duchin said they were now seeing a positive effect from the introduced measures but the number of deaths and cases continued to increase. 

























'We are seeing a positive effect from the social distancing and other measures we've put in place, although significant numbers of cases and deaths continue to occur,' Duchin said.

'The threat of a rebound that could overwhelm the healthcare system remains and will remain for the foreseeable future if we let up too soon.' 

A new statistical study published this week found that the measures introduced in Washington state appeared to have slowed the rate at which coronavirus spread from person-to-person over three weeks in the Seattle area.

The Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) used government-compiled heath data, including positive and negative tests and overall mortality, and anonymized Facebook location data to calculate the impact of the lockdown.

The study found that the data appeared to show that the pandemic has slowed in Washington state since the measures were introduced.

The disease's reproductive number - the amount of people a single patient will infect on average - dropped by nearly half, from 2. In the event you loved this informative article as well as you wish to receive more info relating to Podiatric Office in Poznań i implore you to go to our web-page. 7 at the end of February to 1.4 by March 18, it calculated. The reproductive number must fall below one for the pandemic to decline, according to the study. 

Facebook location data indicated 'a persistent decline in mobility' and 'strong evidence that people have been staying at home' over the period, the report found.

It showed an average 27 percent increase in the occupancy of residential areas, and a 43 percent decline in areas with offices such as central Seattle.

The state's stay-at-home order was 'timely and necessary' but must be maintained, and 'more progress is necessary,' the report said, noting that the models drew on a small amount of data and contain considerable uncertainty.















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