Editorial from the Chicago Tribune
How will history look back at our national handling of the virus within nursing homes? Not kindly.
According to federal data analyzed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for the week ending Nov. 29, more than 375,000 nursing home residents have been sick and 76,542 have died in COVID-19-related cases across the country.
For nursing home staff, more than 322,000 have gotten sick and 1,162 have died.
The illnesses have exacerbated industry-wide staff shortages that plague long-term care facilities even without a pandemic. The work is hard and high touch — bathing, changing, feeding and caring for the most vulnerable, who are most at risk of dying from COVID-19.
Tuesday marked a major milestone in fighting the virus. Vaccine-to-market timetables that normally fall in the five- to seven-year span took less than one year. Bravo to that.
Front-line hospital workers are the top priority to receive the vaccine so far. This is heartening news after months of despair.
But we need to begin inoculating nursing home residents. Yes, the logistics of getting vaccines to hundreds of thousands of nursing home residents is more complicated than for front-line hospital workers, healthy and able to give swift consent.
But nursing homes where outbreaks have been raging and where staff are overwhelmed should also be of highest priority in the coming days. Can we roll out vaccine to them sooner?
What else can be done short and long term? Nursing homes need to be prioritized — and should have been months ago — for rapid testing of both staff and residents and a plentiful supply of personal protective equipment.
Also, we need to recruit more workers to the nursing home field. Shortages are a systemic problem. Outreach should include partnerships with community colleges and a scholarship fund to attract future nursing home health care workers. This is the time to get that program off the ground.
States should expand and promote free certified nursing assistant training and extend the use of temporary health care workers — employees nursing homes cannot afford to lose.
As for nongovernmental assistance, most of us have had experiences with loved ones in long-term care facilities. We know how isolating it can be. But there is plenty all of us can do to help loved ones and others in nursing facilities.
First, call the facility and ask how you can help. Some facilities might be accepting much-needed volunteers. Some might encourage a tablet computer drop-off program so residents during these lockdowns can communicate with their loved ones. Some facilities might encourage a sidewalk concert of carolers or a car parade or a dessert drop-off. Check first.
One thing we know works to boost morale is appreciation — hospital workers have received it and cherished it and nursing home workers deserve it too. Let them know, “We are here, and we value your dedication and sacrifice.”
