PRESCOTT, Ariz. — A Prescott nursing facility that saw one of the state's worst COVID-19 outbreaks during the height of the pandemic has settled lawsuits with several families who lost loved ones.
An attorney with the Jensen Phelan Law Firm, which represented five families, said Granite Creek Health and Rehabilitation has settled ten of its lawsuits, many of which allege wrongful death. The amount families settled for, along with additional details in the settlement, is confidential.
According to federal data, from May 2020 through December 2021, 20 Granite Creek residents died of COVID-19.
Fifteen of those deaths happened within a four-week window in June and July of 2020.
According to current and former employees who anonymously spoke out to 12News at that time, employees who tested positive for coronavirus were being told to come into work anyway. They were in close contact with vulnerable residents at the nursing facility.
"My coworkers are in there right now working with the COVID. Just because they're not showing anything they're allowed in there," one employee previously said. "I've been crying every other day because residents that I have taken care of for over five years are now dead."
State and federal investigators moved in on the facility and noted a long list of violations.
Families of victims, some who survived and others who died, filed lawsuits alleging gross negligence. Lawsuits claimed the nursing home and its administrator failed to provide safe and skilled nursing care, and failed to implement an infection prevention and control program.
According to ADHS, the facility, which is now under new leadership, was last surveyed in December of 2023 and no deficiencies were found.
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