Texas Senate votes to allow nursing home visits during pandemics
A unanimous Texas Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that would guarantee that people in nursing homes and long-term care facilities could still receive visits from loved ones even in a pandemic.
Senate Bill 25 would allow residents to designate an "essential caregiver" who could not be turned away and who must be allowed to have in-person visits lasting at least two hours a day.
State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said her bill was inspired by many tragic stories of nursing home residents who were cut off from loved ones as facilities struggled to limit a disease that spread rapidly and was deadly to older people. The forced isolation was particularly hard on residents with dementia, she said.
"We were working to protect all of Texas, but when we were doing some of those protections, we were also creating some harm," Kolkhorst said, adding that she did not blame facilities that struggled with an impossible situation. "It's not the nursing homes' fault. It's not the operators, it's certainly not the nurses aides. They love it when we're in there. We give then support. But these were the saddest of sad stories."
Read more: https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/texas/story/2021/mar/18/texas-senate-votes-allow-nursing-home-visits-during-pandemics/863920/
I question Sen. Kolkhorst's wisdom on this matter since I'm aware that there were dozens of cases of COVID-19 at one of the nursing homes in Brenham.
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