30 residents of Massachusetts assisted living facility hospitalized in weeks after woman's death, health director says
Hopkinton's health director says 30 residents of Golden Pond Assisted Living Facility have been transported to the hospital in recent weeks. The hospitalizations have come weeks after a woman was found dead inside her unit with a room temperature nearing 100 degrees.
"I don't have access to why all the residents were transported. I do know that there were four complaining of heat-related issues," director Shaun McAuliffe told WBZ-TV.
The transports happened as the town and multiple authorities work to determine how an 86-year-old resident of the assisted living and memory care facility died.
Death at Golden Pond Assisted Living Facility
The woman was found dead inside her unit at Golden Pond Assisted Living Facility on Wednesday, Sept. 30.
A police report from the incident explained that the woman was obviously dead and reads, "The apartment was extremely hot with the thermostat indicating that the room temperature was 99 degrees Fahrenheit."
According to the report, a facilities manager told police that the heat had been turned on a day prior.
According to a timeline provided to WBZ by McAuliffe, town Health, Building, and Fire Department staff found the temperature of the building to be above the legal threshold of 78 degrees Fahrenheit on Oct. 1. The dead woman's room was at 81 degrees and heating returns ranged from 85 to 104 degrees, McAuliffe wrote.
Golden Pond's HVAC contractor turned the heating system off on Oct. 1, but McAuliffe says the town continued to receive calls stating that the facility was dealing with temperature issues. The heating system remained off until Oct. 15.
Health director demands answers
The town also conducted a food safety inspection of the facility on Oct. 14 and found multiple issues including rodent droppings in a cookware storage room and cockroaches crawling along the wall in the food prep area of the kitchen.
After an action plan from Golden Pond and issuing a housing order to correct, McAuliffe says he is now seeking immediate action from the facility.
He wrote a letter to the facility director and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Aging and Independence (EOAI) seeking an explanation for the facility's HVAC issues by Oct. 21.
"The Board of Health will take action if Golden Pond fails to comply with orders," the letter states.
The EOAI told the health director it had four inspectors on site Tuesday completing a full compliance audit.
Douglas Noble, director of operations at The Communities at Golden Pond, did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
He sent WBZ this statement after the resident's death.
"The Communities at Golden Pond, an assisted living residence, is closely cooperating with its regulatory agencies regarding the death of a resident last week," Noble said. "Our HVAC system is professionally maintained by a licensed contractor on both a seasonal and as-needed basis and was working properly at the time of this incident. Each apartment in our community has an individual thermostat that residents can operate directly, although we encourage our residents to push their call button for staff assistance with it."
