April 17, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Cobble Hill Health Center has been aggressive in our efforts to protect our residents and staff from Covid 19. We’re incredibly proud of our staff and how they’ve responded to this unprecedented worldwide emergency. Our resident population is, by definition, fragile and vulnerable and almost all have significant underlying health issues.
Although we’ve had an increase in deaths during the past few weeks, we have not been able to confirm that the deaths are specifically related to Covid-19. Any deaths we’ve reported have been based on the possibility of Covid-19 being a factor. Because Covid-19 testing in skilled nursing facilities has been extremely difficult to obtain, there is no uniform measure to determine conclusively whether Covid-19 was a contributing factor in a resident’s death.
Published lists of deaths in skilled nursing facilities are inaccurate and based on subjective criteria. It is our belief that there is widespread underreporting of deaths related to Covid-19.
We’ve been in frequent and direct communication with the NYS Department of Health, OEM and our elected officials from the very beginning to ensure that we were doing everything possible to mitigate the dangerous effects of Covid-19 in our facility. Skilled nursing facilities have been the last to receive desperately needed resources to help us fight Covid-19, with the overwhelming majority of supplies and staff being diverted to acute care.
We love our residents, have endless respect for our staff and are grateful for the trust that our residents’ families have placed in us to care for their most cherished loved ones.