'Ground Zero:' Cuomo to Crack Down on Nursing Home Outbreaks as NY Deaths Near 16k

[eleny]

Uh-oh. Families of NYS nursing home residents must be firing up lawsuits. He announced today, early in his briefing, that the State will be launching investigations of nursing homes to determine if they're following NYS regulations regarding care and family notification regulations for residents diagnosed with covid-19.

"Gov. Andrew Cuomo says New York state will crack down on nursing homes that fail to notify families about coronavirus cases and deaths at the facilities, which have been dubbed ground zero of the national coronavirus crisis. Nearly a quarter of the state's deaths, now nearing 16,000, come from long-term care.

By law, nursing homes must provide personal protective equipment and temperature checks for staff. They must isolate COVID-19 residents, ensure separate staff for virus patients and notify all family members within 24 hours if any resident tests positive for COVID-19 or dies from infection.

That's not always happening. More families are finding themselves blindsided by a loved one's nursing home death before they were even told a particular facility had a virus problem. In some cases, that reflects a home's lack of awareness. In others, it's an absence of reporting. Declaring nursing homes a "top priority since Day 1," Cuomo said Attorney General Letitia James would lead that investigation in coordination with the state Department of Health."

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/new-york-virus-deaths-top-15k-cuomo-expected-to-detail-plan-to-fight-nursing-home-outbreaks/2386556/

[eleny]

1. P.S. Rachel Maddow dedicated her 1st block last night on nursing home covid-19 diagnosed residents

It was a passionate account of what's happening in nursing homes regarding their care.

[marlakay]

2. My moms senior home front door locked

To get to apts, all meals sent to apts none at dining room, no visitors allowed in building you can drop off supplies at front door and staff will bring to them.

[bluestarone]

3. When ever and where ever it needs to be

INVESTIGATED!!! They cannot get away with anything IF they are breaking any rules and regulations!!

[eleny]

4. This is a major hot potato for NYS

He got a lot of questions from one of the reporters about this nursing home issue. But he didn't spend the kind of time on answering like he does for most other questions. He's pretty uncomfortable.

The state has been getting PPE to nursing homes for two weeks according to one of the people on today's panel. But launching a state investigation means the state is hopping now to fix the issue of regulations. It tells me that some of the conditions must be very poor. The article also goes into some of the conditions in New Jersey nursing facilities. Not pretty.

I imagine that this problem is national.

[MerryBlooms]

5. The assisted care facility where my client lives, has been locked down since early March.

Here's Oregon's Coronavirus stat page- it includes information on our long term care facilities, including VA facility:

https://govsite-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/0NtmRxaGTU2WdC1MGu8O_COVID-19-Weekly-Report-2020-04-14-FINAL.pdf

[eleny]

7. Thanks for providing the report

One piece of data that struck me was the age group with the most patients diagnosed in Oregon in general.
Ages 40-49
# diagnosed 294
18.7% of total

People in Oregon between the ages of 40 and 69 are at the greatest risk with the 40-49 age group having the most diagnosed, if this one report is a general reflection of the circumstances.

Also, looking at the symptoms presented by all those diagnosed in Oregon for that weekly report I have to wonder about something. Yesterday I heard about a report that pointed out that asymptomatic people who were diagnosed positive didn't always have a fever. Those people have been routinely turned away from hospitals around the country because they didn't have a fever. So they mingled with the public and could have passed on the virus to others.

China, currently opening daily life in Wuhan, has been having temperatures taken before customers can enter a restaurant. But we're learning that this may not indicate that they're safe to mingle in the general population. The video showed people shoulder to shoulder at restaurant take-out windows.

New information is trickling out slowly as we learn more about how this virus affects us.

[Dennis Donovan]

6. There was a 3/25/20 advisory from NYS DoH about letting covid pts back into nursing homes

They're allowing pts tested or suspected of COVID illness back into nursing homes.

Link to tweet

[eleny]

8. I wonder how many hospitalized were able to return to their nursing facilities

My career here in CO was at the state level Human Services Dept. This morning when I heard Gov. Cuomo talk about an "investigation" being launched to determine if all NYS nursing homes were in compliance with the rule my head snapped from the pc screen to the tv. Statewide investigations conducted at the state level are serious business.

I have to conclude that they're worried about statewide non compliance which translates to major lawsuits on the doorstep. NYS is covering its you-know-what, and fast. But it may be too late.

I have compassion for NYS given that they've been dealing with ae massive onslaught of covid-19 and the fact that I was born and raised there. After college I was a NYC caseworker for about 5 years before moving west. I take no joy in what's most probably motivating them to investigate. Human services departments don't operate on fat cat budgets and employees care about the people they serve.