What about nursing homes?

By: Kian McCabe

State officials failed to give patients and workers in nursing homes the same safety precautions that other workers were presented during the COVID-19 pandemic.   

Many of the United States COVID-19 deaths are people over the age of 65; for example, as of July 16th in California, 5,654 deaths were people over the age of 65, making 76% of California COVID-19 deaths are people of older age.   

It has been known before COVID-19 hit the United States that people of older age and people with underlying health conditions were more vulnerable to the virus.  

But with the lockdowns and stay at home orders, why have so many older people died? One of the biggest reasons was the effect that COVID-19 lockdowns had on nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the country. New York, Massachusetts, and California are a part of the top five hardest hit COVID-19 states in the U.S.; they were also just a few of the states that nursing homes and long care term facilities were poorly regulated.   

What went wrong?   

One of the main reasons the nursing homes were severely hit during this pandemic was because state officials put positive COVID-19 patients back in their nursing homes to make room for more sick patients in the hospitals.  

This idea and process were started in New York when Governor Andrew Cuomo said that nursing homes had to take back their patients from hospitals regardless of their COVID-19 status. It was only in May that New York stopped requiring nursing homes to take COVID-19 patients when the pandemic had already been affecting the United States for over two months. Another critical thing to note was that this policy retracted after the governor received backlash.   

California had a similar policy to New York with the state officials forcing care facilities to take back patients, which eventually led California having 40% of deaths be nursing home patients or workers.   

Another striking issue is the racial divide among the victims in nursing homes in the United States. It has been reported that “predominantly black counties had accounted for more than half of all U.S. coronavirus cases and almost 60 percent of coronavirus deaths.” 

These people are affected in nursing homes as well as because their patients and employees are not getting the protective equipment they need. “In East Los Angeles, a staff member at a predominantly Latino nursing home where an outbreak emerged said she was given swimming goggles before professional gear could be obtained. She said she later tested positive for the virus.” State officials have failed to protect nursing homes in general; they have also failed to protect those who live in more vulnerable communities.  

Why?   

Some will probably debate that older people were more susceptible to COVID-19 that’s why more older people or sick people are dying which is true, however, it makes no sense that these state officials put positive COVID-19 patients back in nursing homes and expected something other than entire floors of nursing and long-term care being wiped out by COVID-19 to happen.   

Sending patients back to their nursing homes was to make more room in hospitals for sicker patients.   

But they failed to try and create a safe environment for them to recover, why? Do state governments think that older people or already sick people are not worth the state’s resources? It is an alarming conclusion considering it has been previously known for months how they are more susceptible, so shouldn’t more funds go into helping them and flattening the curve of COVID-19.  

These states are starting to come across as representatives of ageism, which is prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age. These officials are making decisions to help stop the spread but are just as equally contributing to the spread.     

What could’ve been done differently   

Nursing homes have been prepared for outbreaks and viruses in the past, but they are not miracle workers.   

The 2017-2018 flu season was one of the worst in recent years, and these caused nursing homes to lock down with limited excursions and access to common rooms, and everyone had to wear masks and gloves. So when COVID-19 hit, the leaders of nursing homes had somewhat of a plan in place to limit exposure to COVID-19; however, the workers can only do so much with positive COVID-19 patients being admitted to nursing homes against their will by the leaders of the state governments.   

In May 2020, 62% of all COVID-19 related deaths in Massachusetts were in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.  

The difference between New York, California, and Massachusetts is that state officials in Massachusetts teamed up with city officials in Boston to create only COVID-19 nursing homes after many patients died in nursing homes including:   

The Julian J. Leavitt Family Nursing Home in Longmeadow, where 66 residents died.  

The Mary Immaculate Nursing and Restorative Center in Lawrence, where 64 residents died  

New York’s nursing homes were in serious trouble. It’s reported that “the Long Island nursing home had only one known resident who had contracted the virus, according to the facility’s president and CEO, Stuart Almer. A month later, they’re battling an outbreak that’s killed 24 residents — only three of whom were hospital transfers — and one staff member, And the nursing home is still mandated to take in recovering hospital patients known to have the virus, potentially increasing its spread in the facility.”  

 We cannot change the past, but hopefully, these states’ mistakes can help us continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic with the focus on helping everyone, especially those in long care facilities and nursing homes. Stay safe, and wear a mask.