Legislative panel discusses steps to fix organizational lapses at Soldiers’ Home An ambulance arrives at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke on March 31. COVID killed 77 residents at the home. GAZETTE FILE PHOTO Published: 1/21/2021 9:57:01 PM Infection control policies, set staffing schedules and protocols for staff training are among measures aimed at improving conditions at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, hard hit by a COVID-19 outbreak last spring. In a special joint oversight committee of the Legislature on Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders told lawmakers that interim Soldiers’ Home superintendent Val Liptak and the team on site are taking a series of steps to make sure that conditions that contributed to the deaths of 77 veteran residents never recur.