Nursing homes had problems controlling infections before all this

Jackson Manor, one of Signature HealthCare's 42 facilities in the state, had a major outbreak.

"Many Kentucky nursing homes failed at infection prevention and control even before the novel coronavirus blazed through them over the last two months, infecting more than 1,000 of their residents and staff as of Friday and killing more than 120," John Cheves reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader, after checking the homes' inspection records.

"Among the places cited for errors as routine as a lack of hand-washing are seven of the 10 long-term care facilities now hardest hit by covid-19, such as Rivers Edge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Jefferson County, Signature HealthCare at Summit Manor in Adair County and Signature HealthCare at Jackson Manor in Jackson County."

But people who were looking for a nursing home for themsleves or a loved one in the last year would have to dig deep, like Cheves did: "State regulators almost never issued a serious penalty for infection control violations, so they seldom resulted in fines or affected the federal government’s five-star rating system that the public uses to compare the quality of nursing homes."

Cheves examined the 333 infection-control citations issued to Kentucky nursing homes from April 2016 to December 2019.