gavel on pile of money

A senior living provider will pay a fine of $27,100 after being cited for failing to protect its workers from COVID-19, resulting in the death of a memory care employee. But the provider says that prioritization of hospitals over long-term care for pandemic resources prevented it from complying with the letter of the law.

Sholom Community Alliance, which offers a continuum of care and services in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota, was cited by the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration for failing to deploy an adequate respiratory program for workers that included medical evaluations, initial fit testing and training, and for failing to report a work-related fatality. OSHA said those actions “caused or contributed to” a memory care unit employee’s exposure to and eventual death from the virus.

Sholom CEO Barbara Klick said the community was able to secure N95 masks, but supplies of different sizes were limited due to prioritization of hospitals over long-term care providers for supplies and funding. Fit-testing kits were on backorder, preventing the company from being able to even perform a fit test for the masks, she added. 

“I think the message is, it goes back to partnerships and common sense,” Klick told McKnight’s Senior Living, adding that the regulatory bodies, including the Minnesota Department of Health, failed to recognize that it should have prioritized long-term care, which was at the epicenter of the pandemic.

“We’re in this together. I think the appeal is to say, ‘Why were we penalized’ and ‘Why is there not more of a partnership with all the regulatory bodies, including the Minnesota Department of Health and OSHA?’ ”

Jamie Maddeaux, the community’s vice president of sales and marketing, noted that long-term care in general never had to use N95 respirators before the pandemic. Both Klick and Maddeaux said that long-term care providers need to be brought to the table as part of the continuum of care but that in many ways is still regarded as the “red-headed stepchild” and an afterthought for funding.

“I was hoping the spotlight from COVID would shine on long-term care and be brighter with all we need to do for our seniors and not just go away and go back to how they were,” Klick said. “This past year has brought down so many unfunded mandates, it’s a near impossibility for long-term care providers to continue on too much longer into the future.”

David Kolleh, a Liberian immigrant and father to 13, was working with residents in Sholom’s Leo & Doris Hodroff Pavilion for Memory Care, located within the Roitenberg Family Assisted Living Residence in St. Louis Park. He tested positive for COVID-19 on April 24, 2020, 14 days after the first memory care resident tested positive, according to the Star Tribune. He died from complications of the virus on May 18, 2020.

Staff members were provided N95 respirators on April 20, 2020, but they were not given a medical evaluation or proper fit testing, according to the OSHA inspection file.

“[Kolleh] was not being protected by an effective respiratory protection program when the first resident tested positive for COVID-19, and this likely caused or contributed to [Kolleh’s] exposure,” the report reads.

Maddeaux said Sholom’s experience should provide a warning for other providers who experienced the death of a staff member during the pandemic. 

The media outlet reported that Kolleh was among the first 5,000 people in the state to receive a COVID-19 diagnosis and among the first 750 to die from its complications.