When 20% of COVID-19 cases are in Nursing Homes -CMS Rolling Back Infection Control
Insanely CMS and the FEDS are considering rolling back infection control in a nursing home in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic -when more than 20 % of the cases in the US are in Nursing Homes.
The mind-boggling idea was reported in USA Today. A rule proposed last year by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would modify the amount of time infection prevention must devote to a facility from at least part-time to “sufficient time,” an undefined term that lets the facility decide how much time should be spent.
Why do you need infection control in a nursing home- even before COVID -19?
Over 4 million Americans are admitted to or reside in nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities each year and nearly one million persons reside in assisted living facilities. Data about infections that occur in these skilled nursing home include on a normal day before coronavirus
- 1 to 3 million serious infections occur every year in these facilities.
- Infections include urinary tract infection, diarrheal diseases, antibiotic-resistant staph infections, and many others.
- Infections are a major cause of hospitalization and death; as many as 380,000 people die of the infections in LTCFs every year.
Nursing Homes deaths May Be 50% of All Deaths in Pandemic
These infection control rationals were before COVID-19. Now, in the midst of this black plague of the 21st Century, it is thought, according to the Washington Post that nursing homes may account for 50% of death BEFORE infection control is further diluted by CMS.
Cities& States Reduce COVID-19 Risk in Nursing Homes -Feds Increase Them
In contrast to the blighted policy idea of the Federal government, Detroit, as a city, has tested every nursing home and in addition, is testing all staff and providing them with PPE.San Francisco is also now testing every resident of a nursing home. States like Maryland and Wisconsin and testing all nursing homes.
The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that at the end of the pandemic we may find out half of the deaths in the pandemic were from residents of nursing homes. In light of all of this carnage and potential destruction of the elder population in the US- why then are CMS and Trump loosening infection control? Is this throwing salt into the would of frail elders, madness, an attempt to delete people on social security, incompetence at CMS or CMS following the bedeviled destructive policy of the Trump administration? We need answers but will we as a country get them in time?
paid others to meet their needs (as opposed to families who must themselves find and orchestrate ways to meet basic and complex needs themselves or with the help of the extra-familial system). Often these families have household staff, i.e., nannies, butlers, drivers, private pilots, cooks, and maids. They may have available to the business and family lawyers and accountants, as well as, teams of medical professionals and concierge physicians. Consequently, in almost all situations they are uninvolved in processes, especially those that are difficult, stressful and time-consuming. ( Fine and Newcombe- Entitlement in the Aging Family, Care Managers Working With the Aging Family)
normal families and have been well parented although you will find a mixture of dysfunctional aging families. Their adult children tend to be supportive of their parents, although again you will find a mixture of dysfunctional families in this category.