The first week of March, the 123-bed facility barred visitors, enacting a precaution that didn't become mandatory across Massachusetts until days later. Staff scrambled to snap up any personal protective equipment they could get their hands on.

"We went on Amazon," D'Andrea said. "We were ordering from anywhere you could possibly order … We've begged, borrowed and begged even more for donations."

They shut down access to common areas, cooked free meals for their 200 staffers and made employees care packages with food and toilet paper to try and cut down on their trips to the grocery store. They bought an electrostatic sanitizing sprayer, like the ones used by airlines, and tested anyone that showed the slightest sign of illness.