BUFFALO (WBEN) - As the Covid-19 pandemic forges on, local healthcare experts remain concerned about nursing homes and long-term care facilities, as these types of environments inherently provide many problems in attempting to fend off potential outbreaks.
"Our nursing homes and long-term care facilities are really the Achilles heel of this epidemic," said Dr. Tom Russo, Chief of Infectious Disease at the Jacobs School of Medicine.
Russo believes healthcare workers need to treat these facilities as high risk hospitals, and he likened it to a place such as Roswell Park, where rigid infection control measures are required.
"We have a large number of vulnerable individuals that are at risk for severe disease that are housed in close proximity, and we've learned that this virus is extraordinarily infectious," he said. "Once it gets in, it has the propensity to spread rapidly."
As outbreaks have been reported at local healthcare facilities such as Father Baker Manor and St. Catherine Laboure, Dr. Bruce Troen, Chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Jacobs School of Medicine, says there's only so much that can be done to prevent initial infection and subsequent spread.
"This is unfortunately a perfect storm because of the patient characteristics and the setting in which they find themselves," said Troen, who also noted that most models show as much as a 20% death rate in individuals 80 or older who contract the virus. "We know that in order to maintain a safe distance and reduce the chance of infection, you have to stay away from other individuals, but in a long-term care or nursing home environment, that's often just not possible."
So, for people with family currently residing in a nursing home, would it be safer to bring them home? Troen doesn't believe so.
"The question can be raised - are older adults, family members safe in a nursing home environment?" began Troen. "I think the answer now, for the most part, yes. Because there's significant community spread and because many nursing homes have already has some exposure, it's past the time where one should consider going to get a family member and bringing them home."
