Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Facilities With Isolated Seniors Ask Children Home From School To Send Cards, Drawings To Brighten Their Day
USA Today: US Nursing Home Residents Are Trapped In Isolation Amid Coronavirus. Cards And Letters Are Brightening Their Days.
Residential and retirement facilities across the country are limiting visitations to help combat the coronavirus pandemic, leaving residents increasingly isolated. But people are answering the call to brighten residents' days with cards. (Shannon, 3/19)
Stat: Assisted Living Residents May See Lapses In Care During Pandemic
Every day, a quiet army of aides fans out across the country to fight off the creeping indignity and loneliness of old age. They head into individual homes and assisted living facilities, some to clip toenails or give baths or cook meals, others simply to converse or read aloud. They may be there as little as 30 minutes or as much as 14 hours. But as everyone tries to shield the elderly from the new coronavirus, these caregivers and the people who employ them are facing unenviable choices. Communities for older adults are closing their doors to any worker or visitor deemed “non-essential” — but the line between necessary and unnecessary care is blurred at best. (Boodman, 3/20)
Kaiser Health News: As Coronavirus Spreads Widely, Millions Of Older Americans Live In Counties With No ICU Beds
More than half the counties in America have no intensive care beds, posing a particular danger for more than 7 million people who are age 60 and up ― older patients who face the highest risk of serious illness or death from the rapid spread of COVID-19, a Kaiser Health News data analysis shows. Intensive care units have sophisticated equipment, such as bedside machines to monitor a patient’s heart rate and ventilators to help them breathe. (Schulte, Lucas, Rau, Szabo and Hancock, 3/20)
