Residents, staff test positive for COVID-19 at care facility

A total of 14 residents and employees with Whitefish Care and Rehabilitation Center have tested positive for COVID-19.

According to Reid Crickmore, executive director of the Whitefish-based nursing home, all residents and staff were recently swabbed for the virus and those test results came back from the state testing lab in Helena around 12:30 p.m. Thursday. For privacy reasons, no further information was released about the cases.

“We [facility employees] are working closely with CMS [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid] and the Flathead County Health Department and are communicating any and all updates to all family, staff, and residents,” Circkmore said in an email to the Daily Inter Lake. “Our residents’ and staff’s safety is our number one priority and we will continue to work hard to protect them. We are thankful for our staff that works tirelessly day in and day out to provide care for our residents.”

The cases were touched on briefly during the Flathead City-County Board of Health’s virtual meeting Thursday when a health department employee said they had been working closely with a long-term health-care facility in the area and had been in communication with leadership there on a day-to-day basis. Health department personnel are currently investigating the cases.

Over the past week, the Daily Inter Lake has received several calls from individuals with loved ones in the facility. Family members called anonymously, but all expressed concerns over a possible COVID-19 outbreak at the facility. One caller said they felt they had been “left in the dark” when it came to gathering more information from nursing home staff after they were allegedly told last week that testing was being performed and there were positive cases.

The facility is currently closed to non-essential visitation.

After several attempts, the Inter Lake made contact with Crickmore via email Thursday morning. At that point, Crickmore said they were awaiting results and that the facility’s COVID-19 mitigation plan called for treating anyone with COVID-like symptoms as a possible positive case.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean they have COVID. It is purely a precautionary measure,” Crickmore said Thursday morning, prior to the results coming back.

According to the federal government’s Medicare website, the nursing home is currently owned by Sweetwater Whitefish OPCO LLC and has 100 certified beds. That number does not necessarily reflect the number of individuals that currently reside there.