The Soldiers' Home in Holyoke is a full-service veterans center and hospital located in Holyoke, Massachusetts, which maintains 247 beds in its main nursing facility, and a separate domiciliary care building with 30 full-time residents. The facility provides long-term care and outpatient medical services, as well as dental and social services, and programming and events for veterans. Operated by the Massachusetts Department of Veterans' Services, it is inspected annually by both the state and the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs. In April 2020, at least 74 veterans—30 percent of the home's residents—died of COVID-19 in the deadliest outbreak at a long-term care facility in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. A subsequent independent report found that poor infection control practices and chaotic decisionmaking promoted the spread of the virus within the home. In response to the outbreak the facility is implementing a $2 million dollar overhaul to redesign its floors, reducing the number of beds to 160 in compliance with distancing guidelines.
History
The creation of the Soldiers' Home was a prolonged seven-year process; following the end of World War II, the Commonwealth saw an influx of wounded veterans requiring longterm care. At this time, more Federal facilities were in the process of being set up across the country and the only state facility designated for the task was the Soldiers' Home in Chelsea, which had been set up in 1882. In 1945 the Massachusetts General Court would pass several pieces of legislation, including allowing veterans on Chelsea's growing waiting list to be admitted to other hospitals, the expansion of that facility, and the construction of a new combined residence, community center, and hospital for veterans in the Central/Western regions of Massachusetts. Emphasis was put on the latter's location due to the fact that many veterans from as far away as Pittsfield would have to travel to the Boston area for care. After a prolonged debate on locations, the number of beds, and the services offered, by 1948 the Holyoke site had been selected. However funding and regulations had led the project to stall, and incoming Governor Paul A. Dever promised to make its construction a priority of his administration. Several years later, the Soldiers' Home was dedicated on April 27, 1952 before a crowd of 15,000, including units from Westover Air Force Base, and former AMVETS national commander Harold Russell. At the facilities opening Governor Dever remarked "the scissors of false economy will never be used to cut the appropriations needed for the maintenance of this outstanding institution erected for the veterans of Massachusetts".
Outbreak and deaths from COVID-19
In April 2020, at least 68 residents of the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke died of the novel coronavirus. It was the deadliest outbreak at a long-term care facility in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another 82 residents and 81 employees tested positive for the disease. In late March, there were 230 residents at the home; by April 29, only about 100 remained. An 174-page independent report was commissioned by the state in April and released on June 24. It was strongly critical of superintendent Bennett Walsh for mishandling the outbreak by making decisions that were "utterly baffling from an infection-control perspective" and "likely contributed to the death toll during the outbreak." Walsh, a retired U.S. Marine Corpslieutenant colonel, lacked prior experience in nursing homes and had no medical background. He had been superintendent of the home since 2016. The report also determined that Massachusetts Secretary of Veteran Affairs Francisco Urena had failed to exercise proper oversight over the home to correct problems. The report found that in late March, the home combined a floor of veterans with COVID-19 with a floor of veterans who did not have COVID-19, violating "a basic tenet of infection control" and overcrowding 40 veterans in a space designed for 25. The report also identified a number of other substantially faulty decisions, including failing to isolate residents suspected to have been infected; failing to promptly close the facility's common areas; failing to test residents with symptoms, and rotating staff between units. Among other personnel changes, Walsh was placed on administrative leave in March, and was fired in June after the release of the report. Urena was forced to resign. Governor Charlie Baker accepted all nine reforms proposed by the report and added three more, enacting some with executive action and filing some with the legislature as proposed changes to state law.
Services provided
The Soldiers' Home provides services to eligible veterans residing in Massachusetts including outpatient services with physicians and nurse practitioners specializing in optometry, ophthalmology, dentistry, podiatry, urology, and hematology. The facility also maintains its own pharmacy. Programming is also provided including, but not limited to, bingo, group outings, and social functions. Licensed social service workers also work in residents and members of the veteran community with outreach and coordination of services.
