Federal regulators have nothing bad to say about how the Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing handled what is still the largest coronavirus outbreak at a Tennessee nursing home.
Preliminary reports (here and here) obtained by WPLN News show surveyors found no deficiencies related to the facility’s COVID-19 response or its emergency preparedness. The personnel from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services completed their survey on April 6 as residents were being moved back following a mass evacuation.
State officials, who are charged with the primary oversight of nursing homes, had already said the response was “perfectly adequate.”
More: Before A ‘Tidal Wave’ Of Sickness And Death, A Gallatin Nursing Home Thought It Had COVID Contained
Facility administrator Dawn Cochran says she instituted precautions recommended by federal authorities before she was required to, like screening employees for symptoms. Most of the cases found through mass testing of residents and employees involved no symptoms.
“I was diligent,” Cochran told WPLN News. “I don’t feel like the nursing home can be blamed in the end.”
Some residents remain hospitalized.
Sumner County’s mayor says there are 21 fatalities among former residents of the nursing home.
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