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Niagara County aiding local nursing homes

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal - 1/6/2021

Jan. 6—The Niagara County Department of Health does not have jurisdiction over nursing homes within the county — overseeing the facilities is left up to the state — but Public Health Director Dan Stapleton says the county has been able to assist these facilities over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stapleton noted that, between the health department and Niagara County Emergency Services, the county has played a big part in equipping nursing home staff to fight the virus. He said Jonathan Schultz's team was instrumental in helping to "fit test" N95 masks used in the field to protect nursing home employees, along with other frontline workers.

"I think it's important to say that the staff of these places are dedicated frontline workers," Stapleton said. "They have a relationship with the residents and they realize that for many of those residents — where healthcare workers work — it's also their home."

Schultz, the director of Emergency Services, explained that when the pandemic first hit, PPE was in very short supply at nursing homes and hospitals.

"(Earlier in 2020) we started seeing that many of our nursing homes and even the hospitals were running into major shortages of N95 masks. Gowns became non-existent for staff to protect themselves, shields, safety glasses ... ," Schultz said. "We had a bunch of high chemical suits, like a hazmat suit, which we use for many of our calls. We had quite a cache of those here for any kind of hazmat call in the county."

Emergency Services ended up distributing thousands of these suits to nursing homes, hospitals and fire departments.

"We wanted to get those suits out," Schultz said. "The priority at that time was protecting our healthcare workers and our responders, so we got them as they needed it."

Emergency Services is still distributing protective gear to nursing homes and other frontline agencies when they're running short.

"We've delivered thousands upon thousands of PPE: masks, gowns and face shields," Schultz said.

As of Dec. 30, Stapleton said, the countywide number of COVID-19 cases within nursing homes was 69 and many of those cases were at Lockport Rehabilitation and Health Center, formerly named Briody Rehabilitation & Residential Health.

"Lockport Rehab is the nursing home I'm mostly concerned about right now. But two weeks ago it was somewhere different, and it changes," Stapleton said.

Wherever demand exists, Schultz said, divisions of county government will continue to work together to meet it.

"The nice thing in Niagara County, it's a team effort," he said. "There's nobody that works in silos. Public Health, Emergency Services, the sheriff's office, we have conference calls a couple times a week talking about what's going on, what we can do, what we have prepared for."

"Hat's off to our first responders for what they've done and what they're continuing to do, unfortunately, as our cases rise across the area," Schultz added. "And to our healthcare workers we were working hand in hand with early on getting them the PPE. We're still working to get their needs met."

Jen Maynard, executive director of Lockport Rehabilitation and Health Center, could not be reached for comment Tuesday about the facility's current COVID-19 caseload.

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