The families of 13 people who died in Oregon’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreak at a nursing home have effectively settled lawsuits against the former Southeast Portland facility.
The conclusion of the lawsuits ends a four-year saga that began in March 2020, just weeks after it was established that the coronavirus had arrived in Oregon.
While hundreds of people living in Oregon senior-care homes ultimately died during the pandemic, no facility saw as many COVID-related deaths as Healthcare at Foster Creek, which operated in Southeast Portland until it was shut down by the state soon after the outbreak.
At least 34 Healthcare at Foster Creek residents died from COVID-19 in less than two months. Regulators shut the facility down May 5, 2020, citing immediate danger to residents.
Families of some of those who died filed suit against the owners of the nursing home, St. Jude Operating Company, and the nursing home’s management company, Benicia Senior Living, within weeks of the facility’s closure. Other families joined existing suits or filed new ones in the months and years that followed, leading to three total lawsuits and 13 plaintiffs.
The settlement amount includes all the plaintiffs, said Bonnie Richardson, an attorney for nine of them. She declined to say how much money the defendants agreed to give as part of the settlement, saying the terms of the agreement are confidential. A judge must still approve attorneys’ fees and the probate court must approve the overall terms before the case can be closed, she added.
Reached by phone, an attorney for the defendants declined to comment.
A judge must still approve attorneys’ fees and the probate court must approve the overall terms before the case can be closed, said Bonnie Richardson, an attorney for nine of the plaintiffs.
The settlements allow St. Jude Operating Company and Benicia Senior Living to avoid a public trial. Benicia owns four facilities in Oregon, according to the Department of Human Services. St. Jude used to own two, but now owns none.
But while the legal settlements prevent the public airing of many details of what happened during those two desperate months at Healthcare at Foster Creek, several documents newly in the public record shed light on the nursing home’s operations leading up to the outbreak.
A 10-year contract signed in 2013 showed Benicia Senior Living was expected to produce $78,000 a month in net revenue at Healthcare at Foster Creek, and that $50,000 of that monthly revenue was to be paid to the St. Jude Operating Company, the facility’s owner. Other records showed facility managers agreeing to admit more residents at the beginning of the pandemic, despite facing significant staffing shortages.
“How do you feel about us admitting 2 more residents,” facility administrator Janelle Bufford wrote March 19, 2020, in an email to Benicia Senior Living owner Terri Waldroff. “We have been very careful about admitting, with our staffing being so chaotic, especially in the evenings. We are understaffed, even without these 2 admits, probably 3 eves a week.”
Waldroff replied the next day:
“I think it is fine to Admit. Make sure you screen for the virus,” Waldroff wrote. “Shift some of the care chores to ancillary staff. Have activities (staff) help feed, transport residents around the building etc. hire if you can unskilled/certified people to do the same.”
Four days later, the facility reported its first known COVID-19 case to state officials. Mental-health workers who were contractors at Healthcare at Foster Creek became so concerned about infection-control practices at the facility that they soon stopped working at the nursing home. State officials wrote internally they were afraid the outbreak at the Southeast Portland nursing home could become “catastrophic.” Infections spread and people started to die.
By April 10, 10 residents had died of COVID-19. Infections continued to spread among residents and across units of the facility, until a total 120 residents, staff and others had the virus. The state intervened soon after, evacuating all the remaining residents. A state investigation found a host of violations at the nursing home and the facility was shut down permanently.
— Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter with a focus on crime. Reach him at 971-373-2905; fzarkhin@oregonian.
Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.