Nursing homes are profit factories. They use the "chemical restraint system", where drugs are used to make residents more docile and easily managed by fewer and fewer staff. These drugs destroy any remaining zest for life, and even lead to quicker deaths. Nursing homes love turnover. Nursing homes do not like visitors. Visitors get in the way of the factory system and may even make demands upon the staff. Visitors often see how bad things can be for the residents. Nursing homes would love to severely restrict visitors, but the residents and families will be heartbroken.
43
@Kevin What a statement about our society that this is true. This profit motive is also leading to reluctance to take proper measures to restrict or at least slow the spread of the virus.
7
@Kevin
it is easy to make criticism but the cost of caring for the elderly is astounding. If it is a 2 income household, leaving the elderly at home in not a solution. The father of friends had left stoves burning for more than a few times.
There are many profit centric NH, to be sure. So this is a defense of those. But there are also conscientious homes but they are either underfunded or understaffed just the same. With Trump going after the undocumented, that drains the labor pool further.
The intermingling of elderlies are also dicey. My friends' father was found in bed with another resident. So, there are a lot of legal consequences.
It is true a lot of residents are doped up, just as ADHD children. Unless there is some comprehensive support and reform, it either drains people's finance or relies on medicaid/medicare. More burden on all. Many of these residents are also afflicted with Alzheimer's or dementia.
Finally, with regard to COVID19, NH should follow a straight guideline. Visitors should be conscientious themselves. Their minor fever could be a dead sentence for the older folks. Do people think of that?
So, it is easy to point fingers but it is much harder when you see from different angles
7
@Kevin Not all homes are profit-obsessed, but they do have to meet their budget requirements. I'm happy to say that our 93-year-old mom is in a wonderful care facility in Ohio.
3
How dare any of you that are making assumptions without basis.
3
Yeah, limit visits to "skilled" nursing facilities. That seems like a great idea at a time when oversight is sorely needed. Locking people down and isolating them from loved ones is not going to stop the spread of corona virus. Only careful use of standard protective measures, hand washing, gloves, etc. will. Nursing facilities are doing this because they will do anything to keep prying eyes away from the egregiously errors made by the understaffing with which they operate in the name of profit.
2
Nursing homes are devoid of visitors except for a few brave family, mostly female. I say brave because only the brave can regularly be confronted with their mortality . Like Churches attendance increase at Holidays when the once year guys arrive.
Especially at the “Good Will, Peace on Earth “ time . What am I basing this on? ; my last 10 year of my nursing career and the last 6 years of my mother’s life.
What’s one to do, if you have someone you care about? Visit regularity as your life allows, make sure they get everything they need and some of what they want. Residents who are valued by others become valued by the staff. Honor the care givers who provide the care that is so needed
9
Time to help our older folks learn how to use Internet-centric tools such as FaceTime and Alexa... that won’t cure a virus, but it will alleviate some loneliness.
22
The virus is way more prevalent than what is even being reported.
Today's NYT article on the research clinic doing a flu study in Washington State who's team created their own Coronavirus test and found the highschool student who was positive, is case and point that the virus is more prevalent than the news is able to report. Why? Because if you can't test for it, you can't report it.
I have grave suspicions on the Trump administration's motives on this virus. Withholding tests, sending faulty test kits by the CDC, the firing of key people in high positions. All the states with major outbreaks appear to be those in Trump's sights. I don't trust the administration an inch with Pence at the helm, that they don't politicize this whole outbreak.
The states need to forge ahead under their state of emergency laws and allow the perfect testing facilities, like Dr. Chu's in Washington State to go ahead with the testing. They found the highschooler community case and it was then confirmed by the CDC. It is criminal that these people cannot run tests.
The virus is here, it is everywhere. Testing should not be limited and it should not be controlled. And politics should stay out of a pandemic emergency.
More nursing homes will be hit because of this incredulously incompetent administration that doesn't want to allow testing.
8
Most physicians and certainly all managed care organizations would rather not have to deal with the frail elderly. For many modern physicians, a decaying body seems hardly worthy of their time and talents, which they often prefer to dedicate to the young and the attractive for a multitude of reasons. To the managed care organization, the elderly become a financial burden, especially in those final years of life. Hence, these often defenseless old people get shunted off to 'nursing homes' of varying quality. The old idea of extended families living close together provided protection for the weak. We can still find it among some traditional Asian families. And you know, another benefit is that young people in extended family living situations get the benefit of cost savings from living under one roof, plus trustworthy child care services when the married couple becomes immersed in work.
3
Europe is way ahead of US in testing, assessing risks, taking measures. This reality will arrive here as soon as testing really starts in earnest over the next couple for weeks. The real bottom line so far is that it’s old and sick who are at greatest risk.
So the challenge really is more about our healthcare infrastructure and flattening our the the growth curve of cases as much as possible to enable medical and nursing facilities to keep up. That can make a difference between 1% mortality and 3% mortality. Properly protecting healthcare workers is a big part of this challenge.
Getting rid of large gatherings is also critical because that’s what accelerates the transmission. Quarantining nursing homes is critical.
As is true with any crowd reaction, once the numbers spike, we can quickly go from indifference and false bravado to irrational panic. Messaging from the government will be key as will be confidence in accuracy of that messaging.
The big unknown is what the warmer weather will do to transmission. Typically, flu virus transmission dies off in warm humid weather. No one yet knows with Corona. But you can bet that it will return again in the fall.
4
@Yuri Vizitei
Try a mortality rate of 15 - 30% in nursing homes based on the numbers coming out of Washington.
2
Sadly, COVIS-19 is exposing the appalling lack of attention, respect and service America gives to its elderly. Presented in the advertising media as usually the brunt of jokes, inconveniences to the young, and "greedy" for simply wanting to receive the Social Security and Medicare benefits they spent a life time paying, the United States remains the only economically advanced nation that treats them as such. For example, my 80-plus year old aunt in Sweden fell and hurt her hip recently; it was astounding to watch the rapid, affordable, attentive health care she received---even home visits---under the Swedish health care system.
Societies that victimize their women (#MeToo), despise their children (lock them up at the border, stealing them from their families), and fail to afford their seniors honor (dying in nursing homes from a virus) have lost their moral compass.
Is that where we are?
9
I was surprised by yesterday's diatribe in comments about "nursing homes". Sure the "nursing home" industry must make money to exist and with the dramatic increase in Alzheimer's disease there is a market developing. Sure there are bad facilities like those described in yesterday's comments. But there are a lot of good Memory Care facilities featuring adequate professional help, food service in a restaurant setting, activities and membership of residents in a caring community. At some point in dementia, home care is simply dangerous and professional care is required. The current shutdown is we hope temporary, but it is necessary.
5
@Robert Farmer
What you describe are still facilities that are not constructed to contain the internal spread of communicable diseases. In fact, what you think are advantages, like food service in a restaurant setting, facilitates the spread of a respiratory virus. The staff really aren't trained in isolation procedures for the internal containment and treatment of contagious disease.
1
Bottom line - rigorous personal hygiene, self quarantine when sick, and social distancing during flu season are common sense actions that should occur all the time, not just during the temporary hysteria created by a novel infectious agent. Yes, there is a flu vaccine, and treatment such as Tamiflu exists, but there are still vulnerable groups that can still be hard hit by influenza. In medicine, we adhere to universal precautions. The public is well advised to do likewise as a general baseline.
2
Why the intense fear of COVD-19 when many more seniors die of the flu each year? Seniors with medical frailty living with their children are exposed to more viruses contracted by their grandchildren. Chinese and Japanese families living in cramped spaces have demonstrated this fact.
2
My greatest fear is that the staff at my mother's place -- which works hard and really cares-- is moonlighting, almost to a person, on the night shift. Nearly all of them work days at the many branches of the Cleveland Clinic or University Hospital, which means they will be in daily contact with the sickest people. They'll bring that work with them when they arrive for the night shift at her nursing home.
Welcome to America, where one full time job, and a skilled one at that, just doesn't cut it.
This needs to be repeated until it gets through to our politicians. The two greatest vectors driving this disease are poverty and poor healthcare. They track back to patient zero: Runaway greed. Were my mother's lovely nurses and aids and cleaning staff paid a living wage, the chances of preventing this would go up significantly.
What this disease has done is ripped the mask off of who we really are. Who can bear to look upon the ravages?
23
It is quite common for health care providers, particularly doctors, to work at more than one facility. There must be a common link to the spread of this virus. I suspect traveling providers may be how the virus spread among facilities.
5
Healthcare workers bring in bacteria and viruses.
4
Will anyone even bother to ask the residents what their wishes are ????
They are the customers after all.
5
Or the prisoners
7
This plan has been hastily/poorly executed so far. My dad requires an additional aid to help him with basic needs and they are not letting them in either. There hasn't been additional staff added to make up for this and we can't just take him home because of his delicate condition. While I agree that visits should be limited they should not be just stopped cold like this without appropriate preparation.
12
I understand the rationale for banning family members from visiting their loved ones in nursing facilities. My 92-year-old mom has had three urinary tract infections since the first of the year because the nursing home staff can't be bothered to make sure she drinks enough water. My mom has become very confused. Now that her home is closed to visitors, I can no longer see her or make sure she is getting hydrated.
11
How are they going to screen anyone if they don't run a test ? The visitor could be asymptomatic. And I'm guessing that test results are not immediate, so it's not like the potential visitor could sit and wait to be approved ...
2
No more visits by those who do not have an immunocompetent immune system would make more sense than just no more visits. If offsprings under 65, of someone over 80 wants to visit a nursing home other than that notorious and sloppy Washington state nursing home by all means they should be allowed to visit their beloved grandpa or dad.
Months before this Corona scare, my father turned 100 and first thing I did when I reached his bed side, I placed a hand sanitizer on a table next to his bed and instructed the ward boy who takes care of him that all visitors if they want to touch him should sanitize their hands before and after they touch him and speak to him from a distance. No exchange of infection has taken so far and it is 6 months since then. No one will tell me not to visit seniors. How much it means to someone in isolation to be visited by a loved one will not appreciate it until one day they are themselves in the same shoes. Please do not be afraid to visit loved ones. Just take proper precautions.
7
Too little. Too late. Incubation period is 14 days and it may have already spread to these intensely frail people already. They should've exercised overcautious because of the age of the population and announced this 14 days ago.
My parent's assisted living place in NJ held a meeting and assured everyone they are safe, just don't touch your face... Meanwhile the staff could have been spreading it. Deeds and action matter, not pious words.
Tried to get my parents to self quarantine in their apartment and it was like them trying to talk reason to me when I was 13: ain't listening.
5
Who are these “nursing home industry leaders”?
5
@Lisa Wildman, MSW
They generally include hedge fund managers and their wealthy clients who've invested in various managed care facilities, as well as the managers hired thereby.
Perhaps it's not well known that most of what are called "nursing homes" in reality are communities ranging from independent living units through assisted living facilities all the way to long-term care nursing homes (which may also have "memory units") etc.
Many are run by major for-profit corporate entities.
The era of the local "old folks home" has long passed.
13
Don't do Medicaid planning so you can qualify for Medicaid, as then your family can put you into a nursing home and you'll die from the virus. Instead put your assets in a trusts that should be used on care in your home. When that money runs out, move to the Philippines or Mexico, where if one has a good Social Security one can live out ones days in a properly staffed facility.
5
I have a theory about how the virus has spread so quickly amongst nursing homes here in Washington State. Many facilities no longer employ full-time workers so they can avoid paying for benefits. Those workers then must move around picking up shifts where they can in order to earn enough money. Many also work through staffing agencies. So you get one infected healthcare worker going to 2-3 locations a week, for several weeks, and voila! Our area I'm afraid is going to get much, much worse. And my 91 year old mom is in an assisted living facility here.
23
The largest nursing home in my community has several wings with about two dozen rooms per wing. There is only one nursing assistant assigned to assist and clean up the patients in that entire wing. There is an LPN to administer medicines on each wing and only ONE registered nurse for the ENTIRE nursing facility. Infection control is next to non-existent. Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) only receive a few weeks training and next to nothing on infection control. There is frequently a shortage of gloves. They start at one end of the hall and go from room to room cleaning up the patients, changing the bed sheets, etc., one after the other. I know this because they told me themselves. My dearly departed dear old Mom was an inmate until I took her out if there and cared for her at home.
During hurricane Katrina it was the nursing home elderly who were abandoned and died during that storm. It was the elderly who died during the wildfires in California. I'm not the least bit surprised by the high death rate from Covid-19 in these facilities. Once I read the early news reports that there was Covid-19 in a nursing home I said to myself that there would be double digit fatalities.
9
From the interview with mathematician Adam Kucharski in today's NYT Science Times:
"I think the other thing that people do need to pay attention to is the risk of severe disease and fatality, particularly in older groups, in the over-70s, over-80s. Over all we’re seeing maybe 1 percent of symptomatic cases are fatal across all ages. There’s still some uncertainty on that, but what’s also important is that 1 percent isn’t evenly distributed. In younger groups, we’re talking perhaps 0.1 percent, which means that when you get into the older groups, you’re potentially talking about 5 percent, 10 percent of cases being fatal.
In thinking about social behavior and thinking about your interactions, the question should be, “How do we stop transmission getting into those groups where the impact could be really severe?”
Yes. How do we?
It is hard for many to understand that nursing home residents are threatened by coronavirus brought in by loving friends and families. Perhaps send in a well-sanitized tech savvy family member to set up a new family protocol?
Skype, anyone?
7
Families want to see their elderly relatives. Of course.
But measures like this, had they been put in place, might have saved those Washington State nursing home patients from death from Coronavirus.
The right choice doesn’t always feel good
6
I don't know about anybody else, but i wouldn't let anyone I cared about stay in a nursing home I couldn't visit.
10
@A. Stanton : you are luck indeed, sir, if this has never happened to anyone you love.
Often we have no choice in the matter.
2
This is worrisome.
My 91 yr old mother is in a very nice assisted living apartment in a facility that houses many people who are far more debilitated than she is, many are disabled but not yet ready for a nursing home. Mom's in good shape physically and cognitively and gets around on her own unaided.
I was amazed during a phone call with my mother Sunday to hear my 21 yr old niece and some of my mother's friends took her to lunch in a restaurant in a nearby large mall Sunday afternoon. What in the world are they thinking?
My niece is a very reliable visitor and loving granddaughter to my mother so I'm not going to get in the middle of this but I wish I thought she and some of my mother's other friends had better judgement about protecting my mother.
I sent my mother several packages last week for her birthday and they were delivered by Amazon. She didn't get them. I called the front desk and the 'nursing manager' who answered said he would look around for the packages.
Between my own relatives and the staff of the place, I am very nervous about how this is going.
My mother was a registered nurse (including in public health) so I know she understands about contagion. I home she will tamp down the frequency of her visitors and outside excursions but who knows? She's very independent and headstrong and isn't going to listen to me.
How I had more control in all this.
But I don't.
13
@fast/furious
WOW. What a difficult and frustrating situation to be faced with.
I have no perils of wisdom to offer, only my support in this limited way. I sincerely hope and wish all goes well with your mother and the delivery of past and future items. I sincerely hope she will continue to be healthy (physically and mentally) and independent and unassisted in her movements.
You and your Mom will continue to be held close to my heart and in my thoughts.
Take care of yourself too.
4
In my family’s experience (with assisted living), you simply have to visit every single day. At least once. And even then it is difficult to ensure your family member is getting adequate, let alone good, care. While there are many hard working caregivers doing their best, these facilities tend to cut every corner they can when no one is looking. They don’t staff at appropriate ratios, they underpay staff (that’s part of why the industry is unappealing to workers), and they have few systems in place to monitor the so-called “care plans” they are supposed to be performing.
Yes, use extreme caution. Wash your hands! Put on a mask and full protective gear if needed. But don’t leave your loved one unattended. Please do not trust these places.
15
@Eric C.
There are many fine facilities. Look for a non-profit, preferably with a church affiliation
4
If you can take your loved ones, and get them home care.
1
It ain’t necessarily always so. While i like the idea of a religiously affiliated facility it’s not always better quality.
When checking senior facilities for my mom several years ago, in Kansas, i found that some of the church-affiliated facilities had more demerits than the for-profit ones.
Constant monitoring is required of your family member’s safety in any case.
3
This makes me wonder about 80- and 75- year old parents, both of whom have some underlying chronic conditions and live in senior apartments--independent living, but a large building of seniors. Would it be safer for them to temporarily to live with me (I commute to work daily in Manhattan) out of that environment, or for them to remain there?
Much safer for them to be in your home, get them aide s to be with them during the day. Depending on what you're paying for the senior housing it might be cheaper and far better care. Plus they'll have a chance of surviving this virus.
I would move heaven and earth to get my parent out of an instituional setting ASAP. Having cared for two parents with dementia, I am the first to say that's an enormous sacrifice, and inconvenience, but staying in an institution could well be a death sentence and they face dying alone.
6
@ethel
My mother got the CD while in a "nice" home. Eventually we got her into a hospital for treatment.
They do not practice adequate sanitary procedures.
2
What am I missing here? It seems to me that the county health authorities have abandoned the residents of the Kirkland nursing home to their fate. Why were they not evacuated and placed in a hygienic facility where they could be separated from each other so that the virus would not spread among them? Once the facility was evacuated, a hazmat team could have disinfected the building, and left it unoccupied until safe return was guaranteed. Are we, with our advanced health care system, so unprepared for an epidemic that we cannot cope with an outbreak among the very vulnerable nursing home residents. Yes, many are in the nursing home because this is the last stage in their lives, but must we speed them to their deaths?
22
This is wrong on so many levels and in so many ways
Society is coming apart at the seams.
11
What’s the point of growing old if you’ll end up at the end being isolated from your loved ones and will die alone. It is heartless to even suggest this as a viable option.
5
My dad lives in independent living in a retirement community three hours away. I order groceries for him online when we're not visiting. The grocery store is now refusing to deliver groceries into people's homes or apartments. Tell me, how is an 88-year-old man with a walker supposed to carry in bags of groceries? If where he lives decides to bar family from visiting, how will he survive? Trump should go live in a retirement home. It's where he belongs.
28
Maybe meals on wheels for your dad?
Also, call the building manager and see if delivery can be arranged -- from staff, perhaps for a fee.
5
@atb
Is it possible to hire someone in the community management to take the groceries in to your father and put them away for him?
5
@atb What does Trump have to do with your comment? Everything made sense until that last statement.
4
I just came from a visit to my mom at a SNF. She is on hospice and fortunately is getting the extra attention that hospice provides. I visit a minimum of once a week, and since she is recently on hospice I will be increasing my visits (assuming no ban and I am healthy). I am fortunate to be in California where our more "liberal" political system/higher taxes at least provides decent nursing homes. Still, the staff to resident ratio is not great. The nurses at my mom's facility really do care about their patients, and the CNA's, overall, do a good job.
Being able to visit my mom and form a relationship with the caregivers has been a key component. Not seeing my mom would be really tough on all concerned. At the same time, bringing illness to the nursing facility would be horrible.
My mom's nursing home has all visitors fill out a form, and if we have any symptoms (such as a cough), we are advised to not visit.
I am keeping my kids away for now, and will reduce my visits if I need to. What about the nurses, the CNA's, all the staff, the hospice team? How do I know they are all healthy? Wish I could have faith in the CDC, and our Federal government. Not feeling very confident at the moment regarding our leadership. Staying optimistic until I have a reason not to be.
8
Covid-19 isn’t different from influenza because it is new. It is a new coronavirus stain. (Common colds are caused by coronaviruses.) Flu constantly mutates. Each year a new stain of flu emerges. This is why flu vaccines are only partially effective.
The CDC estimates that flue has killed 20,000 to 52,000 Americans this flue season, which is about average. Covid-19 so far has killed 29 Americans, most them elderly residents of nursing home.
The death rate for seasonal flue is about 0.1. According to the Washington Post, “U.S. health officials on Thursday briefed lawmakers in Congress and said they believe the case fatality rate in this country will most likely be in the range of 0.1 to 1.0 percent, meaning somewhere between one of every thousand and one of every hundred people with COVID-19 will die.” But the covid-19 death rate might fall as testing establishes how many have been infected.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm
1
@William Case : while I myself am exercising caution -- not going on a cruise! nor to China! or Italy! -- people in general are overreacting as if this was bubonic plague or ebola virus.
As you say, it is a very virulent kind of flu (or cold) and there is no vaccine for it (yet). It affects those over 60, so extra caution for those of us in that age dynamic.
Everyone else has no reason to panic -- certainly not yet.
I feel bad for elderly nursing home patients, and the kindest thing to do at this point is not visit -- for a while -- at least a month, until things settle down and we have a better grasp on the specifics of this virus.
3
@Concerned Citizen If you believe people are overreacting about the danger this virus poses, I suggest you read what the doctors in Italy are saying. It may not seem serious to you - yet - but it quickly will become a matter of life or death for millions. False bravado will be our downfall.
1
My mother-in-law lives in an L.A. area assisted living facility. This past weekend they had implemented a check-in station at the main entrance where they check every visitor's temperature and everyone applies hand sanitizer. Signs on the door state that if you are sick--don't visit. I don't want to give up these visits--they really brighten her week and we love her!
8
I have family in assisted living. The residents there are almost as frail as would be the case in a low-level skilled nursing facility. So far, the AL protocol is a lot of hand washing and cleaning, which is reasonable. Visitors are surveyed for risk factors, such as a cough or possible exposure to someone with a viral syndrome. Visitors use alcohol gel and have a temperature checked at the door.
I think this approach is good for all parties, with understanding that family members do, indeed, help with daily care, provide extra and special foods, and boost morale. Obviously, there is a risk associated with visits, because it is likely that virus is being shed during the incubation period, but I think this risk is, so far, minimal, given the very low prevalence in the community of COVID so far.
5
A remaining concern is that the virus can be unwittingly introduced and spread by workers caring for multiple patients at a given facility.
I hope there is a very clear national protocol for caretaking at nursing homes.
1
It is a bad situation and it seems wise to prohibit contact with infected persons and persons under investigation after potential exposure. At the same time we must recognize the serious cruelty and harm from social isolation. If I were a patient and if I had a choice, I would choose careful screening of my guests unless I or other residents merited isolation because of the risk we pose to others. Stopping all visitors is a great headline grabber for an industry where many sites deny a living wage and health-promoting benefits to their workers. Low wage workers cannot afford to stay home when they are sick.
24
If it is true that a person can be infected for 5 days before showing symptoms, how else can you guarantee that this vulnerable population will not unwittingly be exposed to something that could kill them? For heaven's sake, it is my understanding that at this time there are only a few specialized facilities in the US that are equipped for this level of care/containment of a known infected person.
I am a volunteer visitor at a local nursing home - I have 4 therapy dogs and have enjoyed watching many heartwarming interactions of patients who may otherwise not interact physically or emotionally with people smile, laugh, or just sit and calmly pet my dogs. Those that are able thank me profusely, verbally, for the visits, and those that are not may smile or laugh. I have seen first hand the benefit that these visits provide. Even so, I cannot, in my mind, come to the conclusion that the positive impact outweighs the possibility of introduction of a pathogen fatal to this community.
11
"With the deaths of 18 residents in a single nursing home in Washington State, industry leaders recommend strict limits on visits at nursing homes across the country."
So limiting visits by loved one is the extreme action being taken. But what about the people who work in nursing homes? Are they being tested for the coronavirus? How sterile and clean are the nursing homes? What other precautions are being put in place besides limiting family members from visiting their loved ones?
Have the health experts in Washington State nursing home figured out how these 18 individuals contracted the virus in the first place?
It would be helpful and useful if a more complete and comprehensive picture was outlined.
Thank you.
25
Family members feed their relative, dress them, interpret what they need if their speech is impaired, oversee medications, ask questions, and make requests. Many patients will die without daily visits from family.
42
Bon appetit indeed. Two of the kitchen staff preparing those meals are wearing their masks with nostrils exposed. Are masks comfortable? No. Should you wear them properly? Yes.
No wonder the virus (or any virus, for that matter) wreaks havoc in these places.
10
If my husband ever ended up in a nursing home and visiting restrictions were in place, I would have to move in with him permanently because we could not be apart from one another like that for any amount of time. We would both die of a broken heart if we could not see and be with each other.
13
@Marge Keller
Best wishes, Marge.
2
@Marge Keller : I am sorry for your situation but....you surely don't want to make him SICK? he might die!
And if you are health and move in -- that's another $6000 a month for you! (or $12,000 a month for nursing home care!). Can you afford that? would you WANT that? giving up your freedom?
1
Note to industry: Better you should pay more attention to infection protocols overall and provide adequate staffing. Anybody can squawk after the fact.
5
Because of the Kirkland nursing home, Washington State is at the cutting edge of coronavirus precautions. And now there is talk of a nationwide non-visitation policy at nursing homes.
This seems to me to be knee jerk overreaction. A disaster in a single nursing home is just that and is not reasonable grounds for pervasive statewide and nationwide policy decisions that wreak of panic.
2
Truly, a society should be judged by the condition and treatment of its young and old. How well is American society doing in these, the only two categories that really matter?
12
My mother is in assisted living... a lovely, caring facility, but even so the staffing is not sufficient. Either my brother or I visit her every day, otherwise she would become depressed and isolated. We also visit to keep an eye on her care. We know that because we are always there, she gets a much higher quality of care. (We have seen what happens to frail elderly when family involvement is lacking.) Not visiting Mom daily would create other threats to her health. But bringing her home is not a solution either, because Mom needs supervision during the day when my siblings and I have to work.
40
I spent some weeks in a nursing facility in the Midwest US last fall, and my eyes were opened to the fact that care taking is done by the residents family members who are visiting a good part of the time.
After hours when my visitors went home, I was basically on my own until the day shift workers came in. If i ran out of water, there was no water brought to me, no matter how often I rang the bell or kept my light on, and patients screamed, moaned and cried throughout the night.
There was only a skeleton staff on at night, and not enough to go around to help residents use the bathroom or replenish water or come if someone fell or needed help.
I was lucky, I knew after only 2 days what I was going to have to do to survive my Nursing Home Experience and had my family load me up with water and diapers, make sure I had my cell phone close at hand in a drawer so it would not fall on the floor or disappear from my bedside, and even to have a family member sleep in my room if any were available to do that.
Its all about the money, and what the Nursing Homes are paying their caregivers and support staff while taking in the
Big Dollars for the Rooms.
50
Having had relatives in nursing homes in the past, now is the time that all people with loved ones in nursing homes need to be extra vigilant about their care. Unfortunately one cannot know how their relatives are being treated unless they show up at the facility. i’m sure the industry would love for folks to remain unaware about how they conduct business day to day - so I understand the motivation for their message.
I’m ignoring their message and checking on my loved ones.
18
@Sylvia Isler : I know you mean well, and I know nursing homes really need supervision and families watching out for loved ones.
But this is a medical crisis! --- a pandemic!
What if your desire to "help" means you are a carrier -- who is not sick yourself, but tracks disease and death into the nursing home?
2
While I understand the rationale for the industry's recommendation, I must say that I think the leader(s) who offer this are out of touch. Even in some of the best facilities, the staff are overworked, and many family members and friends are actually providing crucial assistance.
201
@MinIL My heart goes out to the seniors and their families. I can't imagine how frightened and alone they must feel, to no longer be able to have the reassurance and comfort of visits from friends and family.
I suppose I understand the rationale for doing this (officials are grasping at straws at the moment and this is the best they can do). But I still feel terribly for the seniors in those nursing homes. Their lives are 100% dependent on others doing the right thing.
17
@MinIL
I’ve been through similar situations. I recommend a wireless hotspot and a baby monitor that’s accessible through an app over the internet. You can “call” and see how they’re doing, say “hi”, and chat. Even though it’s not perfect, it lets them know your still connected.
13
@MinIL
Understandable for sure....... but... if the facility is going to allow people from outside.. then they need better safety and containment protocols and MUST enforce them.
This time it is COVID-19.... which is a serious risk to residents of nursing homes.... but it could just as easily be any sort of virus, bacteria, or fungus that sneaks in on the clothing or person of a visiting relative, staff worker, other visitors.
By definition, residents of nursing homes are at high risk of outside infection vectors creeping into their nursing home.. with possible dire consequences.
2
While i understand the motivation behind this recommendation, i would have a hard time with being unable to monitor my elderly parents’ care.
174
@Susan Tucker Just a suggestion, you could buy one of those Alexa or Google screens and put it in their room to monitor and communicate with them.
14
@Sasha Love
Not if the LTC facility has already placed a ban on visitors.
3
@Susan Tucker Oh my God. I agree.
I just called my parents and told them I will use my last penny to keep them out of a nursing home. This is the most horrifying thing I can imagine--a terrible end to lives that are deserving of so much more dignity, comfort, love and care.
19
The nursing home industry could just as well be saying: “We could implement strong prevention procedures... but staffing for that stuff costs money, and that would cut into our executive bonuses and investor returns. Let's just ban visitors so the residents' families can't see how little we're actually doing.” Sounds cynical, but when I visited my dad's facility last night, I saw signs about screening visitors but nobody doing any actual screening, and none of the staff had even been told about the new policy. I'm sure the industry is grateful for an excuse to bar nosy family members from monitoring conditions and asking questions, but what's going to happen to residents' quality of life?
219
@JL Williams The nursing home business is a loser. It costs more to care for patients that Medicaid (biggest payer) is willing to pay. Medicare patients yield slightly more reimbursement and if you fill a building with only Medicaid patients is goes into the red very quickly. And stays there. This is not an industry like Pharma or Health Insurance with stockholders and CEO's with giant bonuses. Or, even hospitals with their multi-million dollar pay packages for CEO's. There is high turnover because the bulk of the work is done by poorly paid and overworked staff who burn out quickly. Do a little investigating and see why this system is failing.
35
@Peter And why does the care "cost more"? The insurance industry is indeed complicit in the factors which drive patients out of affordable programs and increase costs for everyone - including Medicare.
The system is failing on many levels.
15
@Peter
That doesn't stop executives from skimming quite a bit off the top, though. "In multi-facility long-term care companies, those in CEO positions are bringing in significantly more than other high-level executives, a new compensation comparison report found.
"As of October 2016, the average total compensation (salary plus bonuses) of a CEO in long-term care was $484,010 while the average salary for a chief operating officer was $339,381, according to the 2016-2017 Multi-Facility Corporate Compensation Report by the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service.
"Another one of the highest paid positions in long-term care was top administrative/operations executives with an average total compensation of $296,806."
Medicaid doesn't sound so shabby now. Too bad it doesn't trickle down to nurse's aids and face masks.
47
Good luck telling a elderly patient that they cannot see their loved ones until further notice.
There's common sense and precautions and then there is extreme overreaction and ridiculous.
How many elderly patients will die from loneliness and a broken heart? How many will feel abandoned and forgotten?
Surely, there is a reasonable compromise somewhere in this entire medical debacle.
5
@Marge Keller : get a grip. I feel for lonely patients in nursing homes.
But surely you don't think the solution is "let them get coronavirus and have 25% of them die"????
THIS IS A PANDEMIC!
It's not some plot to make nursing patients lonely.
All visitors present a very serious risk to frail, elderly patients.
8
@Concerned Citizen
Thanks for reeling me and my emotions in. I did get carried away there and off on an emotional tangent.
I certainly do understand the situation. I fear it will get much worse before it gets better.
My only question is are the people employed at all nursing homes tested for this virus? They come and go every single day and have very close contact with so many patients.
Limit the visits - yes, I agree.
But test the employees too!
5
This + what is happening in New Rochelle are chilling game changers for me....this is truly scary.
4
Beware if the Democratic House of Representatives is either under “containment or quarantined.
Cat’s away...etc...
1
Well something has to be done. I live in Ind.Living section of a retirement community with both nursing home and Asst. Living facilities. Most people I talk to are completely unconcerned about this virus. Someone told me it was a Democratic political hoax. Personally, I'm in the at risk category...ovser l80 with medical issues. I DO NOT want to die gasping for breath on a Respirator. Time to GET SERIOUS about this folks.
15
In the name of patient safety, the nursing homes stop visits until this problem is solved. I can't believe that they have not done this! Good grief!
7
@Southern Boy If you think stopping visitors is going to stop this pandemic, you are not paying attention. What about the people who work in the facility? Do not be surprised to learn this virus was introduced into this facility, not by visitors, but by employees, which would explain why it has shown up at more than one nursing home in the area. I suspect the reason the source has not been disclosed is because the for profit home knows who brought this virus to its patients, and it is attempting to minimize its potential liability.
I applaud Governor Inslee for his approach to the Corona virus outbreak. Limiting visitation in nursing homes is common sense. We have identified this population as being at great risk. Now that most of the residents at LifeCare in Seattle have been tested, a majority have tested positive. This only being done after several serious cases and multiple deaths first identified them. Being proactive would identify people in our communities who are positive and spreading virus rather than only serious cases. Why not test all resident in all nursing homes? The one successful thing that other countries have done is to test test test to identify the virus earlier. This nation lacks proper guidance from the federal level driven by a President who desperately and admittedly wants numbers of cases to remain low for political reasons. Governor Inslee and many other leaders on the state and local levels have stepped up and provided leadership in quarantines and closures to help contain the spread. We should open guidelines to test a wider population to identify spread. If we learned that 10 people a day who walked into the ER are also positive for Covid19 wouldn't that give us valuable information for containment?
5
I wholeheartedly approve of this move. My 34 year old daughter is in a care facility where many of the residents are medically compromised. Staying away is the best thing we can do to care for our loved ones. We will “visit” her through our iPad and know that staying away will ensure others’ health.
10
I am so glad to read this.
The more I learn about deaths caused by this virus, the more it seems that the elderly in community setting are THE high risk population.
This is where the strongest of containment actions should be focused!
Having had parents and friends in assisted and nursing facilities, I know how frustrating it is to be told, "You can't visit your mom/dad/friend today. You can't take them out for lunch/shopping/whatever. But, these restrictions will be in place to save lives!
3
@Garagesaler : I feel deeply for seniors in nursing homes, who won't be able to get visitors (except perhaps by phone or Skype or something) for a few weeks.
But surely it is the right thing to do -- visitors are tracking in the virus!
2
Now here's a problem with no easy solution. I can see both sides of the issue.
Perhaps if there's a silver lining to the whole coronavirus ordeal, it will be this: a light is shining brightly on the deficiencies and vulnerabilities of our systems for caring for the elderly and infirm.
10
This situation immediately came to my mind, and yet I saw little coverage on this. Thank you NyTimes.
5
isolating the fragile elderly from those who love them is a sure way to depress their immune system. Good screening of visitirscand staff, staff training and care have a far better chance of reducung morbidity & mortality among fragile nursing home patients.
7
@Cambridge 02138
Screening? By whom? They’re already overworked and underpaid. And airports can’t even screen correctly or at all. Finally, taking temperatures isn’t fail proof.
1
@Cambridge 02138 : there is no screening that will tell you for sure that a healthy young adult with no symptoms is a CARRIER.
The nursing homes will have their hands full ensuring that aides -- who are largely healthy & young! -- are NOT infected and tracking in germs to the seniors.
Asking them to do all the visitors also is impossible.
1
I intend to visit my 87 year old mother in Assisted living in southern California early next month no matter what and I will follow all the CDC guidelines to keep her safe, although there is no coronovirus in my small PA town (so far). I asked my mother yesterday if her assisted living facility has given instructions to the residents about how to protect themselves from the coronavirus. Her answer?-- not a word, not a flyer, poster, newsletter, meeting, nada. Is this the rule or the exception? Scary.
7
@Kelli Hoover
I too would long to see a parent.
But then I think how I would feel if I carried in the virus and infected not just her, but others.
A few weeks are a very long time in an epi/pandemic.
Initial symptoms are mild, it is possible that asymptomatic people can spread the disease.
9
@Kelli Hoover : there is no way to ensure your mom does not pick something up from you -- something you contracted on the plane or in a cab!
Is the visit more important than your mom's health? really?
It can't be put off for a month or six weeks?
3
My mother died at 87 in November after a 3-month stay in a nursing home. During the three months prior to that, she lived at home with assistance from home health aides (and me). During the six years before THAT, she lived in the home and I visited her weekly to bring groceries. She had Meals on Wheels and someone to clean.
I miss her greatly but I can't imagine the anxiety--the TERROR--of being unable to travel the 75 or so miles to assist her because of a quarantine that might keep away meal deliveries, clergy and other people who helped her out. And I cannot imagine knowing that she was dying and being forbidden to enter her room.
I suppose losing her last year was sort of a blessing in that sense.
25
CMS needs to provide some official guidance on this topic, because there is none currently- I work in hospice, in a nonessential role, but I still make visits to nursing homes on occasion. While these visits are largely at my own discretion, there are regulations that require in-person visits for chaplains, social workers, and home health aides. With the viral incubation time, I am very afraid that my well-intentioned colleagues may spread the virus without showing any symptoms. Please, CMS, provide some strict guidelines before this becomes any deadlier.
21
@Bridget check this out. Released yesterday. My nursing home implemented restrictions today. https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-20-14-nh-revised.pdf
1
@Sam thanks! I hope this will help our team to better prioritize and limit contact if necessary.
Many individuals who live in Assisted Living and Nursing Homes received vital care every day from family members - from support dressing to hands on assistance with eating. Facilities would be sorely understaffed (or in many cases even more understaffed then they currently are) without family members providing this daily care. Before blanket prohibitions are instituted there needs to be a nuanced assessment of possible repercussions. Allowances for family members who provide hands-on care is necessary.
73
No, what the industry proposes is so cruel—imagine dying alone, all alone. The assisted living industry should be enlightened enough to find a solution. Firstly, residents and staff should be monitored for Covid-19 regularly. Perhaps a special room where visitors and residents could meet with physical, protective or personal protective barriers put in place.
113
@Jim Tokuhisa
Sure, that sounds nice. But all visitors would have to don disposable hazmat suits, and completely monitored. The best solution is phone calls, and video chatting. Set up a room in the facility, and another at and off-site location for Visitors, such as a community center or Church. These Residents are extremely vulnerable to this Virus, and once it infects their Building, they are at very grave risk. ALL Employees should be screened and/or tested Daily, and all unnecessary persons denied entry. For urgent situations
(Plumbers, Electricians, etc.) they should be screened and made to wear protective gear, and limit contact with all persons. This is apparently a uniquely vulnerable class of Patients. They MUST be protected, at all costs and inconvenience, or they will sicken, and a large percentage will DIE. Best Wishes.
17
@Jim Tokuhisa – Monitoring is imperfect and would detect transmission only after the fact. And there aren't enough masks and gloves to give to visitors.
8
@Jim Tokuhisa A few weeks is not cruel, considering if the virus gets into these facilities it would be death for many of them. And none of those preventative measures has worked thus far.
11
Excellent Step. Please, do not wait for the Trump Regime to issue advice, or even basic information. They are useless. Rely on your State and Local officials for advice.
Best Wishes.
19
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Like in any good and solid friendship, crossroads appear from time to time in which it is best to simply agree to disagree with the utmost respect and dignity.
My husband and I have a pact - I go where he goes. We could not be apart. I would have to move in with him should he ever end up in a nursing home. And the same would apply to him if I ended up in one of those places.
My head understands the reasoning. My heart could just not cope.
4
@Marge Keller
You are a wise and kind person. I have my limits.
Cheers, friend.
3
@Phyliss Dalmatian
I am clearly in the minority on this issue.
I just wonder how vigorously, if even at all, any of the staff and employees at nursing homes are tested for this virus. They come and go into the facility on a daily basis. Just asking the question.
You always write with such a keen and sharp point of view. I always learn something from everyone of your comments. Keep 'em coming PD! Thanks much my good pal.
3
The employees of these facilities are nothing short of heroic. They work for very poor wages doing this profoundly important work, caring for us at the end of our days. So many among them deserve so much more than they ever receive.
136
@A Little Grumpy I agree. When I was working regularly in nursing homes as a physician, I routinely thanked and/or tried to treat the frontline staff as well as I could. Families should realize it's not the nursing home administrator nor the nursing director nor even the RN who spends the most time with your relatives, it's the licensed practical nurse or the nursing aides that provide the majority of everyday care. Some of these professionals have amazing amounts of patience, care, and love for their charges. Want to know how your relative is really doing? Talk to them.
When I've had family members recovering in nursing homes, I brought food and small items to thank the LPNs and CNAs as well as the upper-level staff.
10
@A Little Grumpy : we'll see.
The employees of my aunt's nursing home were low-paid poor black women (Midwest) -- single moms mostly -- working for $9 an hour and no benefits.
Will they risk their lives for their elderly patients? or run for the hills?
2
@Concerned Citizen
They are heroic for what they do every day.
2
The final photo demonstrates another health hazard. Some of the staff preparing lunches have the mask underneath their noses. It should be over their noses.
45
I'm over 80, and have a few issues like most people that age. Yesterday, I hunkered down in my daylight basement for the duration. I'm OK. I have a cat and an Internet connection.
80
@JoeBftsplk
Hang in there!
8
@JoeBftsplk
A cat is the best companion!
8
One of the last conversations I had with a resident while I was wheeling her to dinner began with her saying how grateful she was to be 80. I falsely said she will have "many more birthdays", as she was arranging for her son to bring me information about his alma mater in Boston as I was visiting. We had a flu outbreak; shut down the cafeteria, all residents had meals in their rooms--and still she and several others passed. In addition to family coming and going, other visitors like food vendors, prospective tours, even kids during the holidays. That is the absolute worst place for this to happen--even the healthiest residents are vulnerable as I've learned.
43
Poorly staffed nursing homes want to ban visitors? There are many ways to die in a nursing home. Neglect comes to mind.
My concern is that staff members in these nursing homes - hardworking, poorly paid, and probably poorly insured - are a vector for the spread of the disease. When a place is understaffed they face the horrifying calculation - if I am sick, I might infect someone. But if I don't come to work, people may not get their food or medicine.
This is heartbreaking.
194
@Janice - YES, and how many of these hard-working underpaid NH employees don’t have paid sick leave? If not they may have to choose between going to work and putting others at risk or staying home and not being able to afford food and rent for their own families.
10
No money. There is no money to improve anything in the nursing home industry. Every safety measure and every new regulation imposed drains more and more dollars from staffing, training, maintenance, etc. Workers work like crazy delivering care to residents at near minimum wage. State and Federal funds which pay for care are persistently cut as the cost of operating relentlessly rises. Yes, nursing homes could do more to prevent spreading infections but it can't be done when no one cares to pay for it.
65
@Peter: There is PLENTY of money in the nursing home industry and a huge amount of it is in the pockets of the nursing home owners/operators, who cut every possible corner and cost. I have seen it with my own eyes, with a dear friend who was in nursing home for nearly 18 months:
- Chronic understaffing is a given, ALWAYS.
- Meals delivered to the bedside table, but no one to help the patient eat the food, and the uneaten food is whisked away 35 minutes later, with NO inquiry or interest as to whether the patient has gotten any nutritional intake at all.
- Many staff are heroic, but many OTHER staff are resentful and/or uninterested, and careless.
- Hygiene issues across the board, including staff who do NOT change gloves when going from patient to patient, etc. And toileting practices that would curl your hair.
- Family members and friends are the people who are the effective eyes of, and advocates for, patients. They are also the ones who push to get the care that's needed, and they often provide the loving care that is so often absent in institutional settings.
Trust me, if you had to live in nursing home conditions for a month with only the 'care' the nursing home provides, you'd be darned miserable.
29
@Peter there is tons of money. It goes into the pockets of the owners and executives running the homes.
6
@L : I saw things that would curl your hair also -- and I reported them -- first, discreetly to aides and then to supervisors and nurses -- then to management. My reward: I was thrown out, banned "for life" and threatened with police.
I also reported the things I saw -- gross violations of hygiene! lack of all safety regs! patients not fed! -- to State Board of Health and State Ombudsman. The report was leaked to nursing home management (*billion dollar industry) in advance, they fixed the cosmetic problems and my report was disregarded. Nothing was ever done.
This is the norm.
If you do not have family or friends, it is a very rough row to hoe.
That being said: I have seen no movement for reform or change, on the left or the right.
3
The recommendation should be "all" not "most" visits to nursing homes considering the infection and deaths been highest in the infected demographic. That would be the first common sense approach to containment. Of course, the parallel approach like washing hands for 20 minutes and using desanitizers should be strictly adhered too. A close second would be quarantine of suspected or likely infected. Closing down schools seem too much.
7
I get it, but it’s very sad. Death would be a blessing for many (not all of course) residents in these types of facilities. My own mother is already suffering dementia that’s now breaking her body. She won’t survive the flu or COVID19. I wish for a magic sleeping pill where she passes painlessly, without suffering or fear. We are too far behind on assisted suicide. She would never have gotten to this point had it been legal and accessible when she was capable of making her own decisions. All of this lock down won’t likely make much difference because it seems we are unable to prevent the spread. The staff are hard working, underpaid, and under appreciated. I think I personally struggle most with the idea of people dying alone and without family who want to be there.
34
@A. Harris : I am sorry about your mom -- but not all folks in nursing homes or Assisted Living have dementia -- not all are waiting to die (or want to die) -- and this is not how they might wish to go.
It is not "assisted suicide" to let people die from neglect and a pandemic disease!
2
@A. Harris
“ I wish for a magic sleeping pill where she passes painlessly, without suffering or fear.”
Perhaps rather than wishing your mother dead, you could “wish” for a health care system where people receive appropriate medical care throughout the life span. Better yet, you could advocate for your mother -and for a health care system -where death is not the preferred option.
1
But even the best health care available can’t fix dementia. And the terrible loss of self that comes with it.
2
How will these homes replace the care given by the families and friends of their patients? One of my relatives is in a nursing home at the relatively young age of 70 due to severe Parkinson's. Family members help dress and feed him, provide his favorite treats, and otherwise keep him comfortable. Even the best homes would have to double their staff to provide this level of attention, let alone cope with residents who get sick.
153
My mother was in a top rated facility for 6 months at a cost of over $10,000 per month. The facility was understaffed and a petri dish for colds and viruses. My mother, who had Alzheimer and COPD, was consistently sick. Another resident hit her in my presence and the facility said they looked at tapes and it was nothing. The only reason I know these things is because of my constant visits and complaints. She passed away in August. My only solace is that I don't have to stand outside the facility wondering how my mother is being cared for like those poor souls in Washington.
75
It has been reported that days before they suspected a corona virus, caregivers and first responders were treating patients at the care facility with nebulizers. Essentially aerosolizing the virus into the air and onto clothes. This facilitated the most effective way possible for the virus to spread.
12
Citation?
1
@SharonD
"In the days leading up to last Friday, Life Care staff and first responders were using nebulizers and CPAP machines to treat patients. 'We essentially aerosolized it,' one first responder said, because before last Friday, that was standard protocol to treat patients. 'We made it worse,' he said."
https://www.kuow.org/stories/the-days-leading-up-to-the-outbreak-at-life-care-center-in-kirkland
7
In a related article a nurse's aide said she traveled between facilities for work. In fact, during her interview she was notified about an open position at the Kirkland facility. Is the disease spreading among facilities because staff moves between them?
32
@Sherry It is not unlikely. May of the lower paid workers work multiple jobs because their employers keep their hours below 20 to avoid the obligations to provide health care coverage or sick days. So, they work multiple jobs to feed their families. Or, they want to work more than 40 hrs a week and their employers don't care to pay time and a half. So, after 40 hours they go to another job. Some work days in one facility and evenings in another. Then, home to sleep. These are the front line, hands on workers. Overworked and underpaid. Mostly persons of color and mostly foreign born. Without them, the whole industry would come crashing down. Try to get American kids to take these jobs!
20
@Sherry Staff members at this locations often don't get sick days too (or get points/negative feedback for using them) so they're more likely to be working sick
10
Yes nursing homes residents are particularly vulnerable to the spread of infection. But, something is just not right. They are not even testing the staff at the Kirkland facility even though the UW lab in Seattle said they can do twice as many tests as they're doing now. This does not seem to be about spreading infection.
Couldn't close family members suit up with masks and gowns to see their loved ones? How awful to know your loved one died without a chance to say good-bye. What is it like to die alone?
17
I share the concern being stated about being able to see my parent and monitor their care. My father's nursing home in Dedham, MA has been banning family visitors since last Saturday. No access at all.
Is there anyone who can speak intelligently to the family's "right to immediate access" to their loved one in a nursing home? It's under 42 CFR § 483.10 - Resident rights (subsection f, I believe)?
8
Actually, I have a very part time job in a skilled nursing facility. I cancelled my travel plans. Our small town has had no issues, and even state has had very few incidences of coronavirus. I cannot trust even the isolation timing. Just not enough information. Never would I ever forgive myself if I brought back a death threat to any innocent resident from a large city where the virus looms. My travel included cancelling flight, hotel, plays, etc.
Hoping others will do the same.
27
Not visiting relatives in the nursing home is just awful. The only ones who get good care are the ones who have family visit.
57
@KJ or we can risk the spread and higher risks of death do everyone at nursing facilities.
4
Just look at that bottom photograph ....
Two of the four staff have their noses poking out of their masks, so they might as well not be wearing them.
I am not optimistic.
49
The food prep workers in the picture, two have the masks below their nose.
Why even both? That fact alone makes the mask worthless.
22
As an individual who’s mother-in-law is in an assisted living facility, this makes perfect sense to me. There’s just too many unknowns right now, and it is out there in the community.
7
This should be common sense by now. At the very least if one is visiting an elderly family member the visitor should be wearing a mask to prevent potential transmission, especially given how long the incubation period is and the mild flu-like symptoms it causes in healthy individuals. We shouldn't have to tell people to limit their visits unless essential - they simply would be if they used any critical thinking skills whatsoever regarding a fast spreading contagion that is deadly to the elderly.
14
@Aanaren
And those visitors should arrive with several pairs of disposable gloves - and use them. My mom is in an assisted living home and I think these places should go into as close to a lock down as possible.
13
@Pete: So the staff and patients can effectively spread the virus among themselves, as the facility become its very own petri dish??
1
@L
You make a very good point and one that I should have thought of. I agree with you.
1
Nursing homes always select the absolute safest option even at the expense of residents quality of life and happiness. Surely nursing homes can take steps to allow their already lonely residents to see their families while providing a safe environment for that to happen.
50
Virtual visits
5
@Bryan Yes, preventing the visitors is a hardship for the residents. The difficulty is in choosing between 'lonely' or 'dead from infection'. Nursing homes are poorly reimbursed for care and all operate on the brink of bankruptcy. Staff is overworked, underpaid and burns out quickly.
30
@Lateadopter: Have you ever BEEN inside a nursing home? They can't even do routine necessary tasks correctly; the idea that now they can ramp up to assist with "virtual visits" for each patient is laughable.
23