Coronavirus cases confirmed at Bradley Hospital group homes

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – Several patients at Bradley Hospitals’ group homes have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Bradley Hospital has four group homes where children and teens with behavioral disorders or developmental disabilities can seek treatment.

According to Lifespan, fewer than 10 patients in the group homes have tested positive.

An employee at one of the group homes spoke to ABC6 anonymously to protect their identity and told us the Rumford House has seven residents and six of them have tested positive.

The employee claims the spread could have been avoided.

“We’re perpetuating a pandemic and it doesn’t need to be that way,” said the employee.

The staffer told ABC6 Bradley Hospital had no contingency plan in place for the coronavirus.

“I came in on Monday and was told that I should develop that plan if I wanted a plan. Our leadership team didn’t have the time,” said the employee.

Now the Department of Health and DCYF are investigating the group homes.

Lifespan issued the following guidance on its coronavirus protocols:

“For the past several weeks, all Bradley Hospital staff have been instructed to follow all the infectious diseases guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, such as wearing a mask, rigorous hand hygiene and social distancing. If staff feel sick, they are instructed to go home and to call employee health and their primary care doctor.”

The anonymous employee tells ABC6 these guidelines are next to impossible in the group homes.

“These are resident who are on the autism spectrum. They are oppositional and defiant. They are not wearing the masks as necessary. They are cross contaminating despite our very best efforts to get them to wash their hands and follow proper hygiene. They are spreading it and there’s no where for the staff to eat,” said the employee.

As a result of the close quarters, several of the staff members have now tested positive for the coronavirus, including the anonymous source.

“Our resources are so strained right now that the hospital supervisors and social workers have been asked to go and work on the floor with the residents,” said the employee.

According to Lifespan, all residents and employees have now been tested.

“All staff who are positive are no longer working and have been offered alternative housing.  All residents with the coronavirus are being quarantined together to help stop the spread of the virus. Staff have been given the appropriate PPE, including masks, gloves, goggles and gowns. The surfaces in the homes are to be cleaned every four hours and the homes with coronavirus cases are being professionally disinfected.” –Lifespan spokesperson

According to the Department of Health, there are 123 cases of coronavirus at group homes across the state.