Michigan Auditor General to study long-term care facility deaths in COVID-19 pandemic

The Michigan Auditor General will study reported and unreported deaths in long-term care facilities after thousands of residents died of the coronavirus in skilled nursing sites since the start of the pandemic.

Rep. Steve Johnson, R-Wayland, posted a June 30 letter on his Facebook page from Auditor General Doug Ringler, who indicated that the office received Johnson's June 10 request for a comprehensive study of the deaths and "we intend to act upon your request."

Ringer said various departments' databases will be used for the work; and he set a preliminary completion estimate of late September to mid-October, according to the letter. It states the results are to be reported in a question and answer format.

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Johnson, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, requested the review include a study of the deaths including:

• A review of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services processes and procedures for obtaining death reports from long-term care facilities.
• A review of vital records reports that MDHHS at one time cross-checked with long-term care facility records.
• A comprehensive review of all death records to see if nursing homes are correctly self-reporting their death numbers.
• A proper accounting of all long-term care facility deaths to include homes for the aged and adult foster care facilities.

There have been 4,216 COVID-19-related deaths of residents in skilled nursing facilities in Michigan since the start of the pandemic, as well as 938 deaths of residents in homes for elderly people and 526 deaths of residents in adult foster care facilities through June 29, according to the state's dashboard.

In total, these deaths account for over 28% of the state's 19,775 COVID-19-related deaths through Tuesday.

MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel testified before state lawmakers in June that Michigan was not undercounting pandemic-related nursing home deaths, but deaths at smaller long-term care facilities might have slipped through the cracks.

She told the House Oversight Committee that the number of COVID-19-related nursing home deaths being reported is accurate because the number reported on the state's website is the self-reported number from the facilities.

The hearing was called in response to a report alleging Michigan may be undercounting COVID-19 nursing home deaths. Under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration's policies, hospitals released many elderly, recovering COVID-19 patients back to their long-term care facilities or to nursing homes designated to accommodate them and keep them isolated.

Critics have said Whitmer’s pandemic nursing home policies recklessly exposed other vulnerable nursing home residents to coronavirus  infection. But it has proven difficult to get a clear answer on the impact of those policies.

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Health researchers said that because of haphazard data collection during the chaotic onset of the pandemic, they don’t have enough information to conclude definitively whether returning COVID-19 patients contributed to transmissions.

MDHHS has not been able to say whether nursing home deaths were linked to the transfer of COVID-19 patients from hospitals.

An analysis from the University of Michigan Center for Health and Research Transformation showed no evidence of transmission between COVID-19 patients admitted from hospitals to nursing home residents in hubs. But that team said a lack of reliable information prevented it from doing a more conclusive review of transmission between COVID-19 patients in nursing homes and other residents.

There also were high infection rates in surrounding communities, with staff being exposed to the virus and spreading it inside the facilities.

Staff writers Kristen Jordan Shamus and Dave Boucher contributed to this report.

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.

Clara Hendrickson fact-checks Michigan issues and politics as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work at bit.ly/freepRFA. Contact her at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen

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