Mill Run Care Center in Hilliard reports 37 cases, 6 deaths

HILLIARD (WCMH) — Mill Run Care Center announced there are 37 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the facility. Residents make up 21 of those cases while employees make up 16. Six of those residents have died while 13 employees have fully recovered and returned to work.

“The last month has been backbreaking and heartbreaking for our heroic staff as they continue to do an excellent job caring for our residents under extremely difficult circumstances,” Mill Run Spokesman Ryan Stubenrauch said. “We treat our residents like we treat our own family, and we’re terribly saddened to have to go through this with them.”

Mill Run was not included on the Ohio Department of Health’s website regarding confirmed cases in long-term care facilities. ODH is reporting a total of 558 residents and 223 employees across Ohio have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Mill Run released the following statement:

Mill Run was one of the first nursing homes in Ohio to commit to transparency when its first confirmed case of COVID-19 to the families of its residents on March 23, 2020. Since then, the facility has continued to update families nightly and released information regularly to the media. As more and more nursing home facilities across the state continue to deal with this virus, Mill Run is beginning to see signs that their nonstop efforts to combat the spread of the virus are working.

We haven’t had a resident test positive for COVID-19 in the last seven days and no employees have tested positive for the last 16 days. Of our 16 employees who tested positive, 13 of them have fully recovered and returned to work. We know that this virus will continue to affect facilities across Ohio but we’re hopeful that the extraordinary efforts we’ve made at Mill Run will be helpful to other facilities who are just beginning to experience this crisis.”

The facility has taken the following steps during the last six weeks to deal with COVID-19 and prevent its spread among residents and employees:

• Establishing a dedicated and isolated wing of the facility for any residents who’ve tested positive or may have had contact with an infected person. Steps have also been taken to improve ventilation in the individual rooms. The isolation wing has dedicated staff and equipment to help prevent any spread.

• Any staff member who interacts with residents in the isolation wing is required to wear a face shield and mask, a full protective gown and gloves. 

• In accordance with CDC and ODH guidance, all staff members interacting with any resident are also required to wear face masks and full face shields.

• All residents have their temperatures taken every four hours and are given a respiratory/COVID-19 assessment multiple times per day.

• All staff members at the facility have their temperature taken three times during each shift, before they begin work, in the middle of their shift and before they go home each day. Furthermore, any employee who displays any symptoms has been instructed to stay home and self-quarantine while awaiting test results.

• The facility is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected multiple times each day using hospital-grade disinfectants. In addition, it’s professionally cleaned by an outside vendor weekly. The employees and residents have been given repeated instructions and training on proper handwashing technique.

• N95 masks used at the facility are being disinfected and re-used thanks to Battelle.

• The facility continues making daily phone calls to the family members of each resident updating them on their loved one’s health and any new developments at the facility.