“It just shows that the longer that states lapse in universal testing of all residents and staff, we’re going to see these kinds of stories for a very long time,” said Brian Lee of the advocacy group Families for Better Care. “Once it’s in, there’s no stopping it and by the time you’re aware with testing, too many people have it. And bodies keep piling up.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the Attorney General and NY Health Department will conduct inspections of the state's nursing homes to ensure they're in compliance of COVID19 regulations.
Dr. Roy Goldberg, medical director of a nursing home in the Bronx that reported 45 deaths, said his facility still can’t test asymptomatic patients because of shortages that have limited testing to those showing fever or a cough. “This isn’t what anyone signed up for,” Goldberg said. “It just breaks my heart that the long-term care industry is going to end up being totally scapegoated on this.”
Troen says nursing homes have sicker individuals than staffers are used to dealing with. "They may have fewer staff to care for them, so this has been an ongoing tension that's gone back mutiple years about should we have regulations in place to protect patients and enhance better care and at the same time, not place an undue burden on the nursing home," says Troen. "There are a lot of regulations nursing homes face at the state and federal levels because you can imagine these patients have so many multiple coexisting medical problems, and at the same time, many may be cognitive impaired. If they have dementia, they don't have the mental capacity to make an informed decision," notes Troen.
He believes quarantining patients is easier than social distancing because of incubation periods. "Nursing homes could be a breeding ground for these diseases to spread. That's not necessarily anyone's fault. It's just that these are homes for these individuals, and those who live there forget about social distancing."
While the federal government promised this week to start tracking and publicly releasing nursing home infections and deaths, which could help identify hotspots, that work was only beginning. In the meantime, The AP’s own tally from state health departments and media reports put the count at 11,128 deaths from outbreaks in nursing homes and long-term care facilities nationwide. About a third of those are in New York.