YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown health commissioner explained Thursday there may be a reason one Youngstown nursing home’s COVID-19 cases rose dramatically this week while another nursing home’s cases rose only a little.

Erin Bishop, a guest on the Mahoning County health department’s teleconference with reporters, said one reason cases among patients at Windsor House Omni Manor nursing home increased from five to 31 is that Windsor House had every patient tested for the virus.

“They tested all of their residents, and they still have some tests that are coming back tomorrow and through the weekend, so we might even see a bigger jump,” Bishop said.

“And they are in the process of testing all of their employees, so you may see another jump,” she added.

Danny Rowland, marketing director for Windsor House, said Thursday the company knew that having everyone tested would increase its number of diagnosed cases, but did it to better protect its patients and staff.

“We found at Omni Manor Health Care Center that 20 residents tested positive that were asymptomatic,” he said. “If we had not tested them, we wouldn’t have known.”

Knowing which patients have the virus will enable the facility to place each resident in the appropriate section of the facility to minimize the spread of the virus, he said.

The Ohio Department of Health has been releasing weekly updates on its web site that give the number of COVID 19 cases at each long-term care facility in the state.

Fourteen Mahoning County facilities are currently listed, including Omni Manor, which is on Vestal Road on the West Side. It had 31 patients and 12 staff with the virus this week, an increase of 26 patients and 11 staff members over last week.

Park Vista nursing home on the North Side is the other city nursing home on the list. Six of its patients and two staff had the virus in its listing this week, an increase of three patients and two staff over the previous week.

Park Vista tested some of its patients but not all of them, Bishop said.

“Park Vista isn’t testing everybody yet. We encourage that, but they don’t necessarily have to test everybody,” she said.

A “strike team” from the Ohio Department of Health held a teleconference with Park Vista’s owner, administrator, director of nursing and other state and Mahoning County officials Tuesday to discuss staffing and other issues at the Fifth Avenue facility.

“We walked through what was going on there. They were having turnover with their administration and some of the staff …,” Bishop said.

Park Vista told officials it needed protective personal equipment for its staff and was able to get some from the Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency, Bishop said.

“They’re doing what they are supposed to be doing,” Bishop said. “We talk to them daily, and once a week we will have a teleconference meeting of their management team and our local health department,” she said.

Omni Manor was also supposed to have a teleconference Thursday with an ODH “strike team,” but that conference was later canceled as not needed, Bishop said.

Bishop believes the reason is because she had done a walk-through at Omni Manor and gave a positive report of the things it is doing.

Omni Manor did its own testing, but the Youngstown Health Department and Mahoning County health department also have testing kits they can provide to nursing homes.

During Thursday’s teleconference with reporters, Mahoning Health Commissioner Ryan Tekac said his agency received close to 1,000 test kits from the ODH that can be provided to nursing homes.

“These … facilities have the capability to do mass testing, and that is here now, so you may see an increase in those (COVID case) numbers as they continue to test,” he said. He encouraged the facilities to test, saying the data provided will help control the spread of the virus.

Dr. James Kravec, clinical director for Mercy Health Youngstown, said he signed an order this week to have every patient leaving a Mercy Health facility tested for COVID 19 before they go to a nursing home.

“We’re testing … so the nursing home knows the status of that patient before that patient arrives. We felt that was the best way to help the nursing home as our partner in this.”

erunyan@tribtoday.com