BOSTON (AP) — A legislative panel investigating a coronavirus outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home that took the lives of nearly 80 veterans discussed what qualifications leadership should have at their sixth meeting on Tuesday.
State officials and soldiers’ home trustees answered questions from the Joint Legislative Oversight Board, led by co-chairs Rep. Linda Dean Campbell and Sen. Walter Timilty.
One line of questioning at Tuesday’s meeting revolved around qualifications the next leader of the home should have.
Former Superintendent Bennett Walsh didn’t have a license to run a nursing home, and Maj. Gen. Gary Keefe, the new chair of the trustees, said he doesn’t think the next superintendent needs a license to run the home, as long as his subordinates have one.
Isaac Mass, another trustee, disagreed, calling the requirement for industry experience “common sense.”
“You would not pick a fire chief that had no experience in firefighting, and you would not pick a police chief with no experience in law enforcement,” he said.
Participants also addressed the need for a long term strategic plan for both the Chelsea and Holyoke veterans homes that would include addressing the needs of future veterans. One idea would be to create satellite clinics associated with the Soldiers’ Homes, especially in more rural areas, so veterans who choose not to live at a facility don’t have to travel to Holyoke, Chelsea or a VA hospital for services.
The virus had been blamed for the deaths in spring of 76 veterans who lived at the state-run care center, one of the country’s worst outbreaks at a long-term care facility. Two former top administrators at the Holyoke home have pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence charges connected to the deaths.
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