Statistics show that 51.8% of the deaths related to COVID-19 in Pennsylvania have occurred at long-term care facilities. So what went wrong?
Zach Shamberg - President and CEO of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association - says the Wolf administration's "misguidance" helped fuel the outbreak in nursing homes last spring by ordering the facilities to readmit residents who had been treated for the virus in a hospital.
He tells Kevin and Larry on the News Radio KDKA morning show, "Nursing home providers were still searching for PPE. They were still searching for testing, for staffing assistance. So we made an already vulnerable provider group even more vulnerable with that order".
Shamberg says real progress is being made with the vaccine rollout. He says they are very close to vaccinating all nursing homes, assisted living communities and personal care homes in the Commonwealth through the Federal Pharmacy Partnership Program, which is in conjunction with CVS and Walgreens. But he says many providers are unsure what will happen after that program ends.
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"When CVS and Walgreens pack up, we have no way to ensure that we're going to be able to continue vaccinating residents and staff, and we need a plan for that here in Pennsylvania", he says.
Shamberg also says nursing homes in Pennsylvania spent 96-million dollars per week for personal protective equipment in 2020. He says the state needs an investment in it's Medicaid program because it has not kept up with rising healthcare costs.