Amy Acton and Ohio Nursing Homes During COVID-19: The Record

Did Amy Acton’s COVID Orders Affect Nursing Homes?

Yes. Amy Acton, as director of the Ohio Department of Health, signed and enforced the COVID-19 orders that restricted nursing home visitation and closed senior centers and adult day cares, acting under her statutory authority (R.C. 3701.13) after Governor Mike DeWine announced each policy.

Beginning in March 2020, DeWine announced a one-visitor-per-day limit at nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, which within 48 hours escalated to a full visitor ban — signed and administered by Acton’s department — followed by an order closing all senior centers and adult day cares in congregate settings, effective March 23, 2020.

By mid-April 2020, more than 100 Ohio nursing homes and assisted-living facilities reported 826 affected residents — about 10% of the state’s total cases — yet the Ohio Department of Health repeatedly declined to release facility-level death counts or the number of infected employees, offering no legal justification for withholding the data.

By late May 2020, Acton said publicly that nursing homes “aren’t to blame” for the spread of the virus, acknowledging that medically compromised seniors would die in congregate settings, even as facility operators reported they were still short on testing and personal protective equipment.

By early June 2020, at least 1,641 Ohio nursing home and long-term-care residents had died of COVID-19 — about 70% of the state’s known death toll — even as ODH’s own facility-level case data proved unreliable enough to be publicly retracted, and a court later found ODH’s refusal to disclose nursing home death data unlawful under Ohio’s Public Records Act.

Amy Acton and Ohio Nursing Homes During COVID-19: The Record

Amy Acton, as director of the Ohio Department of Health, signed and enforced the COVID-19 orders that restricted nursing home visitation and closed senior centers and adult day cares, acting under her statutory authority (R.C. 3701.13) after Governor Mike DeWine announced each policy. 

Beginning in March 2020, DeWine announced a one-visitor-per-day limit at nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, which within 48 hours escalated to a full visitor ban — signed and administered by Acton’s department — followed by an order closing all senior centers and adult day cares in congregate settings, effective March 23, 2020. 

By mid-April 2020, more than 100 Ohio nursing homes and assisted-living facilities reported 826 affected residents — about 10% of the state’s total cases — yet the Ohio Department of Health repeatedly declined to release facility-level death counts or the number of infected employees, offering no legal justification for withholding the data. 

By late May 2020, Acton said publicly that nursing homes “aren’t to blame” for the spread of the virus, acknowledging that medically compromised seniors would die in congregate settings, even as facility operators reported they were still short on testing and personal protective equipment. 

By early June 2020, at least 1,641 Ohio nursing home and long-term-care residents had died of COVID-19 — about 70% of the state’s known death toll — even as ODH’s own facility-level case data proved unreliable enough to be publicly retracted, and a court later found ODH’s refusal to disclose nursing home death data unlawful under Ohio’s Public Records Act.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ohio COVID Impact Timeline – Nursing Homes

Date	Order / Action	Framing (Who Acted)	Voter Group(s) Affected	Why This Matters
3/11/20	New rules limiting nursing home and assisted-living visitors to one visitor per resident, per day.	Announced by Gov. DeWine; part of broader mass-gathering guidance issued alongside ODH.	Seniors; Families	First direct restriction on in-person contact between nursing home residents and their families — a precursor to the full visitation ban that followed two days later.
3/13/20	Order escalated to a full visitor ban — “no visitors will be admitted” — at Ohio nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and psychiatric hospitals.	Announced by Gov. DeWine; signed and administered by Acton/ODH under R.C. 3701.13.	Seniors; Families	Within 48 hours, the one-visitor-per-day limit became a total ban, cutting off in-person family contact for nursing home residents statewide — the ban stayed in effect for months.
3/17/20	Advisory that Ohioans age 65 and older “not leave the home unless absolutely necessary.”	Issued by Acton as ODH Director; described by local health officials as “unprecedented.”	Seniors	Extended isolation guidance beyond facilities to all older Ohioans statewide, ahead of the general stay-at-home order. Mental health professionals publicly warned that Acton’s isolation-focused orders could worsen loneliness and depression, a risk concentrated among the seniors and nursing home residents these orders targeted.
3/20/20 (eff. 3/23/20)	Order closing all senior centers and adult day cares operating in congregate care settings.	Announced by Gov. DeWine; enforced by Acton/ODH under statutory authority (R.C. 3701.13).	Seniors; Families; Workers (adult day care staff)	Eliminated a primary daytime care and social-support option for seniors and their family caregivers on days’ notice.
4/16–17/20	ODH data show ~700 nursing home/long-term-care residents infected statewide (21% of cases involving health care workers); separately, 100+ facilities report 826 affected residents (~10% of all state cases). ODH declines to release facility-level death counts or employee infection numbers.	Ohio Department of Health (Acton) provided case totals but withheld death and employee data; no legal justification given.	Seniors; Families; Workers	Families of nursing home residents and facility employees were denied basic information about facility-specific risk and mortality for weeks.
4/23/20	ODH publishes a facility-level report of 840 nursing home COVID-19 cases, then pulls it down after industry objections that the numbers were misleading and, in some cases, incorrect. ODH admits data entry and accuracy problems.	Ohio Department of Health (Acton) published, then withdrew, its own facility-level data.	Seniors; Families	Even when ODH did attempt facility-level reporting, its own data was unreliable enough to be retracted — compounding the information vacuum documented above.
5/20/20	AP reports at least 1,246 Ohio long-term-care residents have already died of COVID-19 — about 70% of the state’s total death toll to that point.	Ohio Department of Health data reported via AP wire.	Seniors; Families	The 70% share was already established days before Acton’s “aren’t to blame” comment below — sharpening, not softening, the timing of that remark.
5/25/20	Acton states publicly that nursing homes “aren’t to blame” for the spread of the virus, acknowledging that “medically compromised seniors will die in congregant settings.”	Direct public statement by Acton as ODH Director.	Seniors; Families; Business owners (facility operators)	Framed facility deaths as an inevitable outcome — made days after nursing homes had already reached 70% of the state’s death toll — even as operators said they were still short on testing and PPE, drawing pushback from outside researchers on the state’s role.
6/3–5/20	The nursing home/long-term-care death toll climbs to at least 1,641 residents — still about 70% of the state’s known COVID death toll — even as the legislature advances a bill (later H.B. 606) granting nursing homes broad immunity from COVID-related lawsuits.	Death count reported independently (Cleveland.com); ODH still directorless-in-transition as Acton departs; immunity bill moving through General Assembly.	Seniors; Families	The same facilities ODH would not name were, by this point, the confirmed source of 7 in 10 Ohio COVID deaths — and the legislative response was to shield the industry from liability rather than require more disclosure.

Legal and Legislative Backlash

Data Withholding / Public Records

Did a Court Find Ohio’s Nursing Home COVID-19 Data Withholding Unlawful?

Yes — a court found Ohio’s withholding of nursing home COVID-19 death data unlawful, though the ruling names the Ohio Department of Health, not Amy Acton personally, and was decided after she left office.

WCPO first requested the names of nursing homes with COVID deaths in 2020 and was refused; when the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) continued to withhold the number and dates of deaths at a named Cincinnati facility, the resulting public-records case found that ODH “committed a per se violation” of the Public Records Act by failing even to offer WCPO a chance to revise its request, as the law requires (Special Master Jeff Clark, report 4/1/21; adopted by the Ohio Court of Claims 4/29/21; affirmed in part and reversed in part by the Tenth District Court of Appeals, No. 21AP-277, decided 6/2/22) — the same category of facility-level data ODH began withholding under Amy Acton in April 2020. The underlying records request was filed June 15, 2020, the same month Acton departed ODH; the appeals court ordered aggregate death counts and dates released, while allowing ODH to continue withholding demographic details that could identify individuals. Separately, no court ruling specific to the nursing home visitor limits or senior-center closure order themselves was identified in the dossier corpus; available litigation naming Acton as a defendant over her broader emergency orders (e.g., Bojicic v. DeWine, Sixth Circuit, affirmed 8/22/22; Renz et al. v. State of Ohio, N.D. Ohio, filed 9/1/20) concerned business closures, not nursing homes.

Emergency Powers / Legislative Backlash

Was There a Wrongful-Death Lawsuit Against Amy Acton Over Nursing Home COVID Deaths?

No wrongful-death lawsuit tying a nursing home resident’s COVID-19 death to Amy Acton’s orders has been identified, though the legal basis for her orders was challenged in two other lawsuits.

No wrongful-death or negligence lawsuit tying a nursing home resident’s COVID-19 death to Acton’s orders — against Acton, the state, or any individual facility — was identified in the dossier corpus or independent research. This is likely by design: H.B. 606’s lawsuit immunity (see below) is retroactive to 3/9/2020, covering the entire period Acton’s orders were in effect, which would foreclose most such claims before they could be filed. Separately, the legal basis for the orders themselves was directly challenged: Pengov v. Acton (Case No. 20-CV-003144, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, filed 5/11/20) argued that R.C. 3701.13 — the same statute Acton used to close senior centers and adult day cares and to restrict nursing home visitation — was “facially void” on separation-of-powers grounds. And Rock House Fitness, Inc. v. Acton (Case No. 20CV000631, Lake County Court of Common Pleas, filed 5/8/20) won a preliminary injunction after a judge called her blanket, congregate-setting closure order “arbitrary, unreasonable and oppressive” — the same category of closure order she applied to senior centers, even though the case involved gyms rather than long-term-care facilities.

Did Ohio Legislators Try to Limit Amy Acton’s Emergency Health Authority?

Yes — Ohio legislators introduced two 2020 bills to limit the same emergency-health authority Amy Acton used to issue the nursing home orders.

Legislators moved to rein in the same authority behind the nursing home orders. Senate Bill 311 (filed 5/5/20 by Sens. Kristina Roegner and Rob McColley) would have barred exactly the kind of blanket, non-individualized quarantine and isolation orders Acton used to close senior centers and restrict nursing home visitation, limiting ODH instead to orders targeting people actually diagnosed or exposed. House Bill 618 (filed 5/19/20 by Rep. John Becker) would have required General Assembly approval for “draconian” shutdown orders — the same category as the senior-center and adult-day-care closure. Neither bill named nursing homes specifically, but both were direct legislative responses to the unchecked authority Acton used to issue those orders.

Did Ohio Law Shield Nursing Homes From COVID-Related Lawsuits Instead of Curbing Acton’s Authority?

Yes — while some legislators tried to curb Amy Acton’s authority, the Ohio legislature separately passed a law (H.B. 606) shielding nursing homes from COVID-related lawsuits.

While those bills tried to curb Acton’s authority, a separate track of legislation moved the opposite direction: protecting nursing homes from accountability for the deaths happening on her watch. As Ohio’s nursing home death toll climbed toward 1,641 (about 70% of the state’s known COVID deaths) by early June 2020, the House had already passed a bill granting nursing homes and other providers broad immunity from COVID-related lawsuits (H.B. 606, House passage 5/28/20 while Acton was still ODH Director; Senate passage 6/30/20; signed by Gov. DeWine 9/14/20, retroactive to 3/9/20). The bill shields facilities from liability for injury or death related to COVID-19 exposure or transmission unless “reckless disregard” or “willful or wanton misconduct” is shown — a high bar that, per national reporting from KFF Health News, nursing homes in states with similar immunity laws have used to get wrongful-death suits dismissed even where families alleged they were misled about safety conditions. The same facilities ODH would not name in its own death data were, months later, shielded by state law from having to answer for those deaths in court.

Did Amy Acton’s Nursing Home Visitor Ban Cause Isolation-Related Harm, Not Just Inconvenience?

Yes — nursing home visitor bans like the one Amy Acton signed are nationally linked to a documented category of isolation-driven deaths, separate from COVID-19 itself, and Ohio’s own data shows nursing homes bore a disproportionate share of the state’s death toll.

The visitor ban Acton signed didn’t just separate families — it is nationally documented as a direct contributor to resident deaths. Investigative reporting and clinical research from 2020 identified a wave of nursing home deaths attributed not to COVID-19 itself but to the isolation of the lockdowns: deaths recorded on some death certificates as “failure to thrive,” driven by despair, depression, and the withdrawal of in-person care and stimulation. One national analysis of CMS data found roughly one such non-COVID excess death in long-term care for every two confirmed COVID deaths — a hidden toll layered on top of the official count, estimated at more than 40,000 excess deaths nationally by November 2020. A peer-reviewed 2022 JAMA Neurology study of 53.6 million Medicare enrollees found nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s or related dementia had 33% higher mortality in 2020 than in 2019, and nursing home residents without dementia had 24% higher mortality — increases the study’s authors attributed not only to COVID-19 itself but to “pandemic-related disruptions in healthcare services, decreased access to community support services, social isolation and loneliness, and caregiver burnout.”

Ohio’s own numbers reflect this disproportionate burden. Nursing home residents make up less than 1% of Ohio’s population, but AARP’s Ohio state director reported that nearly two of every four COVID-19 deaths in Ohio occurred inside a nursing home — a share that exceeded the national average — with nearly 34% of Ohio nursing homes still lacking a one-week supply of PPE eight months into the pandemic. Ohio families lived the isolation side of this directly: one Dayton-area woman who had visited her mother five to seven days a week to help her get ready for bed was locked out the moment the ban took effect; another described her mother, who had hearing and vision loss, asking over the phone, “Why can’t you come visit me? … What did I do wrong?” No study isolating Ohio-specific “failure to thrive” death counts was identified, but the national mechanism, comparable state-level studies, and named individual cases documented elsewhere — together with the ban that triggered the same conditions in Ohio — are all independently documented in the table below.

Isolation Harm – National, Comparative, and Ohio Examples

Did Amy Acton Face Public Backlash Over Her COVID-19 Authority?

Amy Acton's use of her COVID-19 emergency authority drew sustained public backlash, including protests and a remark widely criticized as antisemitic, on the same timeline her department was withholding nursing home death data.

Acton's use of that authority drew sustained public backlash on the same timeline that her department was withholding nursing home death data. In April 2020, Statehouse protesters chanted "O-H-I-O, Acton's got to go"; Acton called the protesters "afraid." By early May 2020 — while ODH was still refusing to disclose nursing home death counts, the dispute that would later become a public-records lawsuit — a sitting state representative was calling her an "unelected, globalist health director," and armed demonstrators gathered outside her home. Multiple outlets, including Jewish-press coverage, reported the "globalist" characterization as a recognized antisemitic trope, since Acton is Jewish. The controversy over her use of executive authority and the controversy over her department's transparency on nursing homes ran on parallel, overlapping timelines.

How Has Amy Acton Described Her Own COVID-19 Orders Since Leaving Office?

In 2023, Amy Acton described her own COVID-19 orders as non-binding "guideposts" — a characterization that contrasts with the mandatory, penalty-backed nature of the orders at the time they were issued.

In an October 2023 Case Western Reserve University Law appearance, Acton described her own orders retrospectively as non-binding "guideposts" rather than mandates, while acknowledging nursing homes were among the institutions required to comply: "Everyone in every position they sat in, whether you were at home with your family or running a business or running a hospital or a nursing home or a meat packing plant... you were having to solve problems in ways no one ever had. Those orders were guideposts." This retrospective, softened characterization can be juxtaposed against the mandatory, penalty-backed nature of the actual orders and the department's contemporaneous data-withholding documented above.

Sources & Evidence