Lack of transparency, infection control measures fueling coronavirus spread in nursing homes, records show
The coronavirus has put the spotlight on America's nursing homes, where more than 10,000 residents have died after contracting COVID-19.
Now government reports reveal supply shortages, lapses in care, lack of transparency, and inadequate infection control precautions drove the spread of coronavirus in these nursing homes, according to CNN.
Nursing homes care for people who are unable to care for themselves because of illness or disability. But the pandemic has transformed them into hunting grounds for the new coronavirus.
“Vulnerable people in one place — it is the feeding frenzy for this virus, despite everything we can do and the best efforts of people working in those nursing homes," New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo said.
With a quarter of US coronavirus deaths reported from these facilities, they are now seeking temporary protection from lawsuits. "It's unprecedented times that we're dealing with," Cory Kallheim, the vice president of Legal Affairs and Social Accountability for LeadingAge, an organization representing non-profit nursing homes and assisted living facilities, told NPR. "So it puts (nursing homes) in a difficult spot. They're doing the best they can in the difficult circumstances."
What are government records saying?
According to the report, sometime in March, a nurse from a Michigan facility said they did not have enough tests. They suddenly had to take care of a room full of pneumonia patients known as the "Covid unit".
Even before the outbreak took hold in the country, many nursing homes in the country were already understaffed. And the coronavirus crisis has made things worse. The staff did not have access to supplies and testing, placing themselves at risk.
Earlier, some family members were kept in the dark about the health conditions of the residents. Recently, the federal government announced that nursing homes should report Covid-19 cases to residents and their families and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Recently, police found 17 dead bodies in the morgue of one facility in New Jersey, Andover Subacute and Rehab Center II. Three days before that, county officials had received complaints about nursing homes for poor conditions such as understaffing, a lack of protective equipment, and patient neglect, according to the report.
"I'm concerned about neglect, poor care, rights being violated and abuse right now," said Patricia Hunter, the long-term care advocate for Washington state, where the first nursing home outbreak publicly unfolded.
The first facility to come under the scanner, the Life Care Centers at Kirkland is facing a federal fine of more than $600,000 for alleged failures if it does not correct the problems found. The facility was criticized for its lack of readiness to face the COVID-19 threat and its transparency.
Some facility workers are receiving death threats. Tim Killian, a crisis management spokesman hired by Life Care told CNN: "To us, it's this unfair environment where the public has somehow come to believe that nursing homes are to blame, that this was caused by us and not something that happened to us. It was probably inevitable that Covid was entering our building as it has entered most nursing homes."