Nursing homes“Playing Russian Roulette”: Nursing Homes Told to Take the Infected
The coronavirus has killed nearly 11,000 residents and staff members at nursing homes and long-term care facilities nationwide, according to a New York Times analysis. This is close to a quarter of the 56,495 deaths in the United States (as of Monday) from the pandemic. And yet, at the epicenter of the outbreak, New York issued a strict new rule last month: Nursing homes must readmit residents sent to hospitals with the coronavirus and accept new patients as long as they are deemed “medically stable.” California and New Jersey have also said that nursing homes should take in such patients. Homes are allowed to turn patients away if they claim they can’t care for them safely.
The coronavirus has killed nearly 11,000 residents and staff members at nursing homes and long-term care facilities nationwide, according to a New York Timesanalysis. This is close to a quarter of the 56,495 deaths in the United States (as of Monday) from the pandemic. On Saturday, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York described nursing homes as a “feeding frenzy for this virus.”
And yet, Kim Barker and Amy Julia Harris write in the New York Times,
At the epicenter of the outbreak, New York issued a strict new rule last month: Nursing homes must readmit residents sent to hospitals with the coronavirus and accept new patients as long as they are deemed “medically stable.” California and New Jersey have also said that nursing homes should take in such patients. Homes are allowed to turn patients away if they claim they can’t care for them safely — but administrators say they worry that refusing patients could provoke regulatory scrutiny, and advocates say it could result in a loss of revenue.
In contrast to these states, Connecticut and Massachusetts designated certain facilities for Covid-19 patients alone — considered the safest way to free up hospital beds. The Washington Health Care Association, which represents long-term care facilities in Washington State, has asked officials to adopt a similar policy; so far, they have not.
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The fears that moving coronavirus patients to nursing homes might spark outbreaks is compounded by the lack of protective equipment at many facilities, as well as shortages in staffing, requiring workers to interact with more patients. And not all hospitals are testing to check whether stable patients are still infectious before releasing them.
