‘Like Swiss Cheese’: Ineffective Protections At Nursing Homes Likely Behind Spike In Deaths Of Many Vulnerable Patients
Lockdown measures were put in place weeks ago in many states, but failures to test doctors and nurses who work with the nation's most frail could be leading to the spike of deaths seen in nursing homes in Tennessee, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland. Other nursing home news is on deaths in Massachusetts and Louisiana, California's orders to accept coronavirus patients and a plea from a 400,000-member union of longterm care workers for better protections.
The Associated Press:
Nursing Home Infections, Deaths Surge Amid Lockdown Measures
Nursing homes across the country have been in lockdown for weeks under federal orders to protect their frail, elderly residents from coronavirus, but a wave of deadly outbreaks nearly every day since suggests that the measures including a ban on visits and daily health screenings of staffers either came too late or were not rigorous enough. Recent outbreaks in Tennessee, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland have pushed the death toll at the nation’s nursing homes to at least 450 and highlight the biggest gap: Screenings of doctors, nurses, aides and other workers do not involve actual testing but the taking of temperatures or asking health questions that still allow infected, asymptomatic people to slip through. (Mustian, Condon and Choi, 4/2)
Boston Globe:
State Mum On Outbreaks As Coronavirus Death Toll In Nursing Homes Mounts
Two dead at a nursing home in Norwood. Five more at a home in Revere. Six at a veterans facility in Holyoke. The death toll from coronavirus outbreaks in Massachusetts nursing homes and assisted living centers is mounting. But precisely how many outbreaks are underway at places that house the state’s most vulnerable residents — or where — is unknown, because the state so far has declined to release that information, leaving families and the public in the dark, even as the facilities block access to visitors. (Krantz, 4/1)
The Hill:
Coronavirus Creates Emergency In Nursing Homes
Nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the U.S. are facing a crisis as hundreds of elderly residents test positive for COVID-19, a disease found to be particularly lethal to older adults. The disease caused by the new coronavirus is spreading like wildfire at hundreds of elder care facilities, which are already at high risk for disease outbreaks because of close quarters, understaffing, lack of supplies and lax government oversight. (Hellmann, 4/1)
Boston Globe:
Coronavirus Cases At Senior Centers And Nursing Homes In Massachusetts Are Rising: ‘It’s A Hot Zone’
One person died after contracting coronavirus at a Littleton nursing home, and at least four others connected to the facility have also tested positive, according to local officials — adding to the number of cases surging through assisted living and senior homes statewide. Thomas Clancy, Littleton’s deputy fire chief, said Wednesday his department was aware of one COVID-19-related death at the Life Care Center of Nashoba Valley, a skilled nursing facility that also offers inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. (Stout, 4/1)
New Orleans Times-Picayune:
St. John Parish, With New Nursing Home Cluster, Has Highest U.S. Coronavirus Death Rate
St. John the Baptist Parish now has the highest per-capita death rate of any county in the U.S. from the coronavirus, a grim statistic that partly owes to a significant and growing cluster of the virus in a Reserve nursing home for veterans. Officials confirmed Wednesday that at least 14 residents of the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Home have tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least four of them have died. (Russell and Warren, 4/1)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus: Skilled Nursing Facilities Ordered To Accept Coronavirus Patients
As fears escalate about the toll the coronavirus will take on the sick and elderly in nursing homes — who are among the most vulnerable to the deadly virus — California regulators have told skilled nursing facility operators that they must accept patients even if they have the disease. The order comes amid a fierce debate between healthcare providers. Hospitals are desperate to clear space for an expected wave of COVID-19 patients, so they are discharging as many patients as possible, including nursing home residents. (Dolan, 4/1)
ABC News:
Union Demands Protection For Nursing Home Staff Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
The union for 400,000 long–term care workers issued a plea for federal help on Wednesday to better protect the health care aides who they say are facing extreme risks as novel coronavirus has spread in dozens of nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the nation. "Our members are truly on the front lines of this crisis. They are providing vital care to the nation’s most at-risk population on a daily basis," said April Verrett, president of SEIU Local 2015. "These workers are putting themselves in harm’s way every day that they go without proper protective equipment, and that ends now." (Romero, Mosk, Pecorin and Freger, 4/2)
