COVID-19 has struck 25 Idaho care centers

Nursing homes and other long-term care centers account for the majority of Idaho’s 83 COVID-19 deaths, but residents and employees of such facilities make up a much smaller percentage of the overall cases in the state.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare reversed a long-standing policy Friday and began releasing more detailed information about which care centers in the state have battled the illness and to what degree. The change in policy came at the urging of the state’s news organizations.

According to the information released, COVID-19 has sickened 289 people at 25 of the state’s more than 400 long-term care centers, a designation that includes nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and intermediate care centers. That works out to about 9.3 percent of the state’s 3,111 cases.

But the illness has led to 52 deaths at such facilities, or about 62 percent of the state’s COVID-19-linked fatalities.

That includes Life Care Center of Lewiston, which has had 54 confirmed or probable cases and 18 deaths — the most in the state in each category for a single facility.

Royal Plaza in Lewiston has had one case and the person has since recovered. No other facilities in north central Idaho have experienced outbreaks, according to the information released by the state.

Two long-term care centers in Twin Falls had more than 35 cases each — Bridgeview Estates with 48 cases and 11 deaths, and The Canyons with 36 cases and 11 deaths. Avamere Transitional Care and Rehabilitation of Boise had 42 cases and two deaths and Dessert View Care of Buhl had 36 cases and one death, according to the information.

According to the data released by the department, 15 long-term care centers have resolved outbreaks while 189 people associated with 10 of the facilities still have the illness. According to the information, there are ongoing cases at Life Care Center of Lewiston and the two Twin Falls facilities, among others.

The department and most of the state’s independent health districts had stonewalled attempts by the Tribune and other Idaho newspapers to access data detailing COVID-19 outbreaks at long-term care centers. The agency and some of the districts wrongly said releasing the information would violate federal health privacy laws. Those regulations protect the information of individual patients but not more general information, such as where COVID-19 outbreaks are occurring.

Idahoans For Open Government, a nonprofit organization that promotes freedom of information and open government, sent a letter Thursday to Dave Jeppesen, director of the Health and Welfare Department, asking that he change direction and release the information. The letter cited the case of Life Care Center of Lewiston, which was initially reluctant to release any information about its outbreak, but later did so at the Tribune’s urging.

The group argued the information is not only public but crucial to people making decisions about the care of their family members.

“People have the right to know about public health concerns in their community — including when they are considering placing a loved one in a recently opened bed at a local long-term care facility,” according to the letter signed by board members of the group. “Idaho’s health districts have never hesitated to name restaurants that violate sanitation standards or that have an employee who has been documented to have a communicable disease; they do so to protect public health. This information must be released for the same reason.”

A.L. “Butch” Alford Jr., semi-retiried publisher of the Tribune, is a member of the board. The letter quoted Alford, who said the Tribune’s reporting about Life Care Center resulted in sympathy for the company and its employees, who worked hard to contain the illness and care for residents there.

“The public and the surviving families came to the defense of the individual employees,” Alford said in the letter.

The Idaho Statesman had also threatened to file a lawsuit to force the state to release the data.

Health and Welfare’s entire report is available at coronavirus.idaho.gov/ltc/. Jeppesen committed to updating the information on a weekly basis.

There were no new cases of COVID-19 reported in north central Idaho or southeastern Washington on Friday. Nez Perce County has had 83 confirmed and probable cases and 19 deaths. Idaho County has had three cases, and Latah County has had seven confirmed and probable cases. Asotin County has had 19 cases and two deaths. Whitman County has had 20 cases but no deaths, and Garfield County has had no confirmed cases. The Nez Perce Tribe has had 18 cases, all of which have been resolved.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.