For weeks, the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., has been seen as the epicenter of the threat of COVID-19 at tightly packed health care facilities. So far, 37 patients have died of the virus.
It hardly gets the national media attention, but a suburban Richmond facility, the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center, maybe surpassing Life Care with 35 deaths of the virus as of April 8.
Why so many deaths?
That’s an important question. There have already been signs of mismanagement there. Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas has been unusually scathing in his criticism of Canterbury. He has said that the deaths could have been avoided and administrators at the facility rejected offers of help from the county.
To be sure, early on Canterbury officials had asked for emergency supplies of medical equipment, such as face masks. They asked for state help and the state asked the federal government to let it have supplies from a stockpile it keeps for just such occurrences. Continue reading