As COVID-19 spread across Texas in March, it became clear that the virus would batter the state’s 1,200 or so nursing homes, where some of the most vulnerable Texans were crammed together in largely understaffed, unprotected facilities. Five months later, nearly 9,000 nursing home residents have tested positive for COVID-19 and 1,100 have died from the pandemic.
What wasn’t clear, however, is which facilities had been exposed to the virus. Texas officials refused to release the information, even though doing so would have helped family members make crucial decisions for their loved ones, says Amanda Fredriksen, the associate state director of AARP Texas. Residents and their families “need to know what they’re facing, and not all facilities are doing a good job communicating what’s going on in the facility,” she says.
Data released at the end of July by Texas health officials finally provides a glimpse into infections, deaths, and recoveries at individual Texas nursing homes. The data also reveals that facilities run by Creative Solutions in Healthcare, a Fort Worth-based company with a poor record of infection control that owns and operates 64 nursing homes across the state, are COVID-19 hotspots.
