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The nursing home dilemma

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Illinois

* Effingham Daily News…

More than a dozen residents have tested positive for COVID-19 at a nursing home in Newton and one has died.

Newton Care Center reported Sunday it has 18 confirmed COVID-19 residents. The Illinois Department of Public Health website reported the same day the death of a confirmed COVID-19 resident at the facility.

Newton is in Jasper County, in southeastern Illinois. More info is here.

* Press release…

At the request of the local government, the State of Illinois has activated a pre-staged alternate housing facility in Jefferson County to meet the identified needs of COVID-19. Jefferson County authorities have indicated a recent spike in positive cases of COVID-19, including more than 17-cases linked to a long-term care facility, will require additional resources to help slow the spread of the virus.

The purpose of an alternate housing facility is to provide a place where people can go to safely isolate or quarantine in order to not expose others in their home. These facilities will allow individuals to remain close to home, near family and his/her healthcare provider of record. However, it is important to note, these facilities are not designed to provide medical care for individuals.

* The Tribune has set up a handy nursing home search page using new state data. Click here. However, that nursing home in Jasper County is only showing 2 cases and one death. There’s apparently a reporting lag.

More from the Tribune…

In releasing the latest data, Illinois officials said they planned to boost testing and shore up staffing at nursing homes, while also defending their initial efforts to try to stem the virus.

Before the weekend, the state had told nursing homes they didn’t need to test anyone else once someone has tested positive at a facility. There are other ways residents and staff can — and have — gotten tested, explaining the multiple cases reported at so many facilities.

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said the state will now be sending more test supplies to the facilities to catch infections earlier and curb the spread, including “aggressive testing of staff.”

Her agency later told the Tribune it will prioritize testing residents and staff in homes without any known cases to more quickly isolate those found with the virus. For homes already with known cases, the agency will test staff to see who can continue to care for residents, while treating symptomatic residents as if they have the virus, even if not tested yet.

Illinois is still lagging the nation on the testing front, however.

* And there’s some push-back against sending COVID-19 hospital patients back to their nursing homes…

These state directives have been strongly condemned by the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Dr. Sabine von Preyss, chief medical officer for Avalon Health Care Group and president of the society’s Washington state chapter, says that a distinction must be made between nursing homes that have suffered COVID-19 outbreaks and those that are still virus-free.

“The question is, should we be forced to introduce a disease with such deadly potential into a population that has been sheltered?” says von Preyss. “And my experience tells me that would be ill-advised.”

Also, it won’t even help overcrowded hospitals, says Dr. Michael Wasserman, who heads the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine.

“If you push folks out of the hospitals to make space and you push them into nursing homes a couple weeks later,” Wasserman says, “for every one of those you send to the nursing home, you may get 20 back in the hospital.”

Thoughts?

* Related…

* Seven nursing homes in southern Illinois have had clusters of coronavirus, data shows

* Coronavirus Cases At Joliet Nursing Homes Top 150

* Second employee death reported at Symphony of Joliet, which has seen the most coronavirus cases among Illinois nursing homes

* Illinois Data Shows Toll Of Coronavirus On Area Nursing Homes - 102-year-old woman seventh person tied to Bridgeview nursing home dies of coronavirus, plus data for other south suburban nursing homes.

* Aurora senior facility has highest number of COVID-19 cases among Kane County nursing homes, new state data shows

* Naperville Nursing Home Has 34 Confirmed Coronavirus Cases: IDPH

* New Data Show COVID-19’s Deadly Reach At Illinois Nursing Homes

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 20, 20 @ 12:49 pm

Comments

Does Darren Bailey have anything to say?

Comment by Precinct Captain Monday, Apr 20, 20 @ 1:01 pm
Jasper county, part of the circus act that is Darren Bailey, wonder what the genius has to say. Saw him and Halbrook were on the ignorant tour this weekend while his constituents were at risk.

Comment by Elliott Ness Monday, Apr 20, 20 @ 1:04 pm
Makes you wonder when the “Hateful Eight” are busy stirring up trouble, how great would it be if those Facebook pages had answers and opportunities to help in a crisis.

I mean, if you are going to go do stuff, like complain about the Governor and penguins, as an example, maybe all these Covidiots can decide to try to mirror Rep. Batinick where he’s actually helping constituents, and the Governor thanked him for being a helper.

These type of tragedies in the nursing homes allow allegedly “safe” area become far worse than they even are now, because they ain’t She-Caw-Go, but the hot spots like nursing homes don’t care about geography.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 20, 20 @ 1:09 pm
That nursing home in Newton also has a staff member that was just confirmed as having COVID-19.

Comment by Osborne Smith III Monday, Apr 20, 20 @ 4:23 pm
OW, you have mistakingly used the word “helpful” associated with the whack jobs known as the Eastern blockheads

Comment by Elliott Ness Monday, Apr 20, 20 @ 5:49 pm
=== Eastern blockheads===

Batinick is neither an Eastern Bloc member or the bigger “Hateful Eight”

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 20, 20 @ 5:59 pm
This by far is the toughest area of this crisis. Breaks my heart to read these stories. Its why people, families and medicare for the most part try and keep people in their homes for as long as possible. We need to do more. Before Corona going to most of these homes was a last step.

Comment by 44th Monday, Apr 20, 20 @ 7:35 pm