Sonoma Specialty Hospital in Sebastopol suffers coronavirus outbreak

California Department of Public Health is investigating a complaint related to a coronavirus outbreak at Sonoma Specialty Hospital in Sebastopol, where several patients and staff have contracted the virus.

A hospital employee lodged the complaint on Dec. 30, alleging patients had been contracting the virus since Christmas at the hospital and administrators are not doing enough to prevent the spread of the virus there.

The state public health department confirmed Wednesday there is an outbreak of the virus at the long-term care center, but officials would not comment further on the matter. State officials consider an outbreak where there are two or more confirmed cases of COVID-19 among patients seven or more days after admission for an unrelated condition.

“We take complaints very seriously, and conduct thorough investigations for any and all complaints that we receive. Details of any investigation are confidential until the investigation is complete and findings are issued to the facility,” state public health officials said in a statement.

Hospital officials say they are following state and federal health and infection prevention guidelines, including regularly testing staff members for the infectious disease, providing them adequate personal protective equipment and isolating patients infected with the virus in the hospital’s COVID-19 unit.

Sony Sidhu, a compliance officer for the Sebastopol medical center, said in an interview there are now five patients diagnosed with the virus, as well as five staff who are isolating at home. Sidhu said that as far as she knows the patients tested positive before admission to the hospital and that COVID-19 is currently not being transmitted inside.

But a hospital employee who filed the complaint with the state public health department said patients are in fact contracting the virus inside the hospital. The employee, who spoke to The Press Democrat on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, has tested positive for the coronavirus and is in isolation at home.

“These are patients who were admitted to the facility with confirmation of negative COVID test results prior to their admission. There are no in-person visits allowed and, thus, these patients could only have contracted it from staff,” the employee wrote in the complaint to state officials.

Sonoma Specialty Hospital is the county’s only long-term, acute care center that cares for patients who require an extended stay in a hospital. It was formerly the cash-strapped Sonoma West Medical Center. In 2018, it was converted to an extended-stay hospital by operator Modesto-based American Advanced Managment Group.

According to the employee’s complaint, the hospital’s leaders are not being “transparent” about the true nature of the outbreak. The hospital, the employee said, is not taking adequate steps to reduce the virus spread, including providing sufficient N95 masks to staff, conducting prudent contact tracing and providing weekly testing.

Sidhu insisted in the interview the hospital is following all infection control guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including testing staff on a weekly basis. Sidhu said many of the concerns some employees have about COVID-19 cases at the hospital stem from lack of communication between the hospital administrators and staff.

“If that’s employees’ perception, then even if there is communication, let’s make it more, let’s make it more transparent,” Sidhu said. “There’s always room for improvement.”

Meanwhile, county health officials Wednesday reported 416 new virus cases in the past 24 hours. As of Jan. 12, there are already 2,988 new infections, a higher number than every entire month since the pandemic began in March other than December when there were 6,736 cases. August had been the second highest monthly total when 2,856 cases were reported.

During the pandemic, 227 local residents have died from complications related to COVID-19, including eight additional fatalities the county reported Wednesday.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.