As of Monday, only about 22 percent of the covid-19 vaccine doses that have been distributed for use in long-term care facilities have made their way into the arms of residents and staff. As has been well documented, these residents—nearly all with pre-existing medical conditions and functional and cognitive impairment-- are the most vulnerable to serious illness and death from [...]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put residents and staff of nursing homes and assisted living facilities near the top of the list for receiving a covid-19 vaccine. That is the right call. But public health officials should not forget about the millions of frail older adults living at home who are at risk of dying from [...]
As the Covid-19 pandemic explodes around the country, cases and deaths among nursing home residents increasing rapidly as well. A new analysis by AARP finds that the rate of facility-based cases doubled from mid-October to mid-November, from 2.8 cases per hundred residents to 5.7. Deaths also rose sharply--though at a lower rate than cases—from 0.48 deaths per 100 residents to [...]
The statistics simply are staggering. More than 728,000 residents and staff of long-term care facilities have contracted covid-19 over the past nine months. More than 100,000 have died—a number that has doubled since June. That is equal to roughly the entire population of San Mateo CA, or Green Bay WI. Four of every 10 covid-19 deaths in the US have [...]
In his campaign, President-elect Joe Biden promised a wide range of policy changes aimed at supporting older adults, including paid leave and tax credits for families caring for older adults, significantly more funding for Medicaid community-based long-term services and supports, and significant reforms to Social Security The question will be how much can he get done, given other priorities and [...]
The covid-19 pandemic has increased the burden on family caregivers and made Americans more insistent than ever on receiving their own care at home, rather than in a long-term care facility. Yet, they are in more denial than before the pandemic about the likelihood they or a loved one will need personal assistance at some time in their lives. As [...]
What has it been like to live in a nursing home during the covid-19 pandemic? Because access to facilities is so limited, it is hard to know. But, for the first time, a survey of residents tells a grim story of loneliness and isolation: 90 percent said they never left their campus, 60 percent said they never even went outside [...]
A national Coronavirus Commission on Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes has identified more than two dozen major flaws in the response of government and the nursing home industry to the covid-19 pandemic. However, the panel, created by the Trump Administration, was relatively passive in its recommendations for how to fix those shortcomings. It feels a bit like reading the [...]
Changes in technology, new government payment models, managed care, and consumer preferences all are shifting services for frail older adults and younger people with disabilities from facilities to home. These models will create new options for consumers and threaten to disrupt the business models of hospitals, traditional nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities. These care models come with a [...]
President Trump’s newest White House pandemic adviser, Scott Atlas, reportedly is advocating for the strategy of building “herd immunity” to stop the spread of coronavirus. Atlas, who is a neuroradiologist and fellow at the Hoover Institution, would allow the virus to spread as widely and quickly as possible to build immunity in the overall population. Think of it as the [...]