Nursing Home disaster plan Archives ⋆ Cathy Cress

Rural Living Elders Greatest Risk to Perish in Massive Western Fires

September 17, 2020

ELDERLY 2XMORE LIKELY TO DIE IN FIRES

The U.S. Fire Administration estimates that older adults are more than twice as likely than the general population to die in fires. One-quarter of the Paradise residents, in the devastating fire that burnt down an entire California town in 2018, through PG&E Malfeasance had a disability which is double the statewide statistic. One geriatric care manager who lives there, lost his home and practice trying to rescue a local older client.

Decades of research confirm that the physical limitations that accompany advanced age make it much more difficult to escape disaster, but so do the social isolation and stubbornness that experts say are common among the elderly.

BREATHING PROBLEMS FOR SENIORS UBER RISK IN FIRES

The elderly are at the greatest risk for fire-related breathing problems according to the CDC.So if they just live in fire-prone areas and do not lose their home the very air they breathe can make them ill or actually kill them. Wildfire smoke can in the worst cases be deadly, especially among older people. Studies have shown that when waves of smoke hit, the rate of hospitalizations rises, and patients experience respiratory problems, heart attacks, and strokes.

In 23 counties, older Californians overwhelmingly choose to live in fire-prone areas. Including in San Luis Obispo County, where 82% do live in rural areas.

That means nearly 2 million older Californians live in areas where wildfire is a formidable threat. It is not only the elderly who are losing homes in these rural Forest fires but those in facilities.

According to NPR in San Francisco, there are more than 10,000 long-term care facilities in California, from six-bed assisted living homes to large nursing centers.

Their analysis found that 35% of these facilities are in risky areas. With as many as 105,000 residents to safeguard if fire comes, these care home operators must now consider how to evacuate during a pandemic, a more complicated and difficult task.

California is aging faster than the rest of the country. In 10 years, the state projects the number of people over 65 will grow to 8.6 million.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY FIRES TURNED REDWOODS INTO INFERNOS

In my county, Santa Cruz, wildfires in our Santa Cruz mountain forest burnt down 25 % of our county in the past month. Among the many senior facilities damaged was Brookdale Senior Living which was evacuated due to smoke damage and inhalation by residents, along with the Kaiser facility. Both had to send patients to the Bay area, where the Brookdale case, frail confused elders were sleeping on cots close to each other, risking COVID -19 and exacerbating their confusion, according to one daughter who moved her mother to her home in Santa Cruz permanently.
ELDERS COLLIDE WITH CLIMATE CHANGE

“There is absolutely a colliding of the events of both population aging and climate change,” said the University of South Florida gerontologist Kathryn Hyer.

TRUMP ANSWER CA MANAGE FOREST- YET FEDS CONTROL 57%- CA 3%

President Trump claimed when he came to California a few days ago that the problem with wildfires was forest management. Governor Newsome agreed but pointed out that 57% of California forests are managed by the federal government and 3% by the state of California. When it was pointed out in that state meeting that the problems with the forest were rooted in climate change, Trump’s answer was, it will get colder, you’ll see..

Trump has rolled back regulations, like auto emissions that prevented climate change- now ravaging our forests .“As a historic figure, he is one of the most culpable men in America contributing to the suffering and death that is now occurring through climate-related tragedy,” Jerry Brown, the former California governor who made climate change his signature issue, said in an interview on Sunday

It seems that it is only getting hotter, harder to breathe more dangerous for all Western residents

but radically more so for elders, who are number 1 in health problems, number 1 risk in COVID and breathing problems and live at home or in facilities in the middle of these mammoth forests, turned into infernos of death

The 2 Deadliest US Sites of COVID-19 Nursing Homes & Prisons

May 2, 2020

PRISON INMATES AND NURSING HOME PATIENTS NOT 6FT APART – 6 FEET UNDER

70% of inmates in federal prisons have COVID-19. In Kansas, the Lansing Correctional Facility had a riot of inmates over COVID-19 lack of care or protection It took the rebellion to get the coronavirus testing PPE and care. The Bureau of Prisons in Kansas confirmed finally that 79 staff have coronavirus and 88 prisons and prisoners dead.

Older residents in nursing homes cannot rebel like prisoners. Many can’t even walk. The Atlantic Magazine just published an article, We are Killing Elders Now. The writer states “In at least six states, these fatalities account for half of all COVID-19 deaths, and according to the World Health Organization, half of all coronavirus fatalities in Europe have been traced to nursing homes too. Some of this mortality is linked to long-term-care facilities that are shoddily run or that violate health standards. But most of them are doing the best they can with what they have. And they don’t have much”.

KAISER FOUNDATION NURSING HOME STAFFING AND USE OF PPE NOT REQUIRED IN MOST STATES

Kaiser reports -Staff Screening. It is more common for states to recommend rather than require daily screening of staff for illness in NFs (24 states recommend, 16 states + DC require)

Use of PPE. More states recommend (23 states) than require (7 states + DC) staff to use PPE

Two States that require testing for coronavirus of ALL residents of nursing homes are Maryland where 556 have died as of the Washington Post article. and Tennessee

THE FEDS HAVE NO CMS FEDERAL GUIDELINES OR REPORTING

We have no federal guidelines for safety testing according to an article by the Kaiser Foundation

It is now estimated that 16,000 deaths have occurred in nursing homes and that is without the federal government revealing any numbers and not making available any testing. But the numbers are probably huge- if we could just do testing.

CMS announced it would have a meeting of a “panel” of experts “ sometime at the end of May”. After probably 20,000 older people died and the feds did nothing this shows their sense of urgency about this pandemic’s national “elder cleansing”.

WHAT CONNECTS PRISONS AND NURSING HOMES – CONCENTRATION CAMPS

So, what is the connection between the viral spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes and prisons- 6 feet ? Prisoners and residents, in nursing homes, and prisons cannot social distance. Jails and prisons have human beings crammed together with no choice. Nursing homes have 2 beds or if you are on Medicaid three to a room. Neither group has a choice to social distance. They are ” concentrated” as in concentration camps or death camps.

Do SOMETHING – HELP NURSING HOMES PREVENT MORE CARNAGE

So, as someone who has spent her career in aging, I am calling out to everyone, especially professional in aging – do something. Since the feds appear to be doing little- call your congressman, write a letter to the editor.

BE KIND LIKE RACHEL MADDOW REPORTS LA JEWISH HOME LA WAS

Rachel Maddow suggests calling your local nursing homes and see what they need. Be kind like the LA Jewish Home was to a smaller nursing home LA Brier Oaks. They wanted to test their residents and had no tests and the larger LA Jewish Home had tests and shared them with the smaller as a good neighbor. What they found was ravaging but it also showed caring and generosity. Care and be generous and show the helpless elders in nursing homes in your town you are opposed to -nursing home being prisons or concentration camps.

Why is Rachel Maddow Telling Aging Professionals About Nursing Homes Death Instead of the Feds????

April 27, 2020

Nursing Homes Turning into Death Camps

I have been learning that nursing homes are turning into death camps from Rachel Maddow not the federal government or aging community. I watch her every night as she is someone who reports the news fairly, focuses on facts and science,not what politicians and the president says. She reports what politicians actually do to avoid what the Trump camp calls fake news. This enrages me as why aren’t I hearing this from the aging community?

I learned that 17 dead bodies piled up in an NJ Nursing Home a week ago . Three days ago it was reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation that Nationwide, among the states reporting data, states indicate that cases have occurred at more than 4,000 facilities, and nearly 51,000 cases and over 10,000 deaths have been reported by in-long-term-care-facilities/

No Fed Requirements To Report Covid-19 Deaths

According to the Kaiser Foundation until recently, there was no federal requirement for nursing homes to report coronavirus outbreaks and COVID-19 deaths. This lead to an information gap for families, residents, and policymakers. After gutting the Obama regulations to improve care in nursing homes in 2017, On April 19, 2020,( many days after Rachel Maddow and the NY Times were reporting the horror(,CMS released guidance that would require nursing homes to report cases of coronavirus directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).This move is totally hypocritical after Trump is the one who caused the horror by slashing regs that would have prevented deaths. This new data is not yet available, but there are a number of states that are already reporting data on long-term care facilities.

When I saw the carnage of nursing home deaths, yet SNF’s asking feds for immunity I was even further outraged.

We Need Inquiry Into Federal Response

I blogged about the root of this problem a week ago We need an inquiry but more than that we need a federal response, which there is none and national coverage which is just starting to occur after the most vulnerable on the planet were locked up in buildings where no one could visit, filled with the people with the highest risk, and staff going from facility to facility as they need three jobs to keep them afloat and spreading the virus then becoming ill themselves

TRUMP CUT BACKS IN NURSING HOME STAFFING INFECTION CONTROL

This lack of staffing and cut back in infection control federally mandated by the Trump government. Trump cut back regulation upgrades mandated by the Obama administration

The Obama administration effort, finalized in 2016, requiring all long-term care facilities to develop infection control and prevention plans to detect, report and contain communicable diseases.

It also covered telemedicine, so required publishing infection control rates weekly in Nursing homes that manage from 1.6 million to 3.8 million infections each year, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. A 2017 analysis by Kaiser Health News found that 74 percent of nursing homes have been cited for lapses in infection control — the most frequent type of health violation.

So, aging professionals, I am going to give you Rachel Maddow’s sage advice,

Sound the alarm- Aging Professionals

Read your local paper for nursing home problems in your area. Now they are only being reported cumulatively by the New York Times and major papers. Send letters to the editor. Write to your governor. Alert your Area Agency on Aging.

Call Your Local Nursing Homes

Call the nursing homes locally and ask what you can do. Besides setting off the alarm can you organize PPE by getting a local club or group of women who sew to help, Even kids have contributed like this child in Boston who sews masks.

Scream to the top of your lungs.

A holocaust is happening and the Trump administration is ignoring the carnage – Rage against the coming of the night for the older people we all love and have devoted our lives to helping.

Concierge Clients Who Can Afford Private Geriatric Care Management No Longer Taking Cruises

April 7, 2020

Tens of thousands are dying in the US and worldwide of coronavirus so a cruise ship of any cruise now wreaks of expiring slowly on the ocean with no real hospital and no place to disembark. This is not the product that the upper 10% or anyone would board now. But in better times concierge products like a Viking Cruise as it is understandable to a high-end customer. They buy it –because it has exceptional services and recognizes their entitled station in life. Coronavirus recognizes no status class and kills all equally.

Sell Products Clients Need During the Pandemic

Geriatric care managers, rather than tell inquiry clients they do assessment–should offer products they need in this pandemic – like relocation (moving an older person). Elders who live in dangerous SNF facilities, so vulnerable to COVID-19

In an article from the LA Times Charlene Harrington a Professor from UCFS states”Families with loved ones in nursing homes should consider pulling them out if it’s at all feasible to care for them at home, said Charlene Harrington, professor emeritus at UC San Francisco’s School of Nursing.

“The risk of exposure is so overwhelming,” said Harrington, who has studied nursing homes since the 1980s. “It’s a terrible concern.”

ALCA suggested that you call all the SNF’s in your area and explain that you specialize in moving elders and can be of help to their clients who are moving out of SNF’s due to family concerns.

GCM Products for the Isolated and Lonely Seniors During Stay at Home Orders

Quality of Life (increasing the joy in an older person’s life who is lonely) can be an important service to offer during the coronavirus pandemic. Seniors who live alone are already isolated, lonely, and depressed and the virus only causes this to explode in their lives. Quality of Life programs like Sage Eldercare’s Humminbird Program has gone remote and can be purchased for a minimal amount for client’s by families or agencies, nationally. Nina Herndon GCM, Sage owner and innovator, started this program several years ago because she was tired of watching elders she served watching TV 40 hours a day. She has brought it into the digital world to serve coronavirus patients nationally. Nina also wrote the Chapter on how to set up a Quality of Life program in my book Handbook of Geriatric care Management 4th edition

Products For Seniors Discharged from Hospitals in Pandemic When SNF’s will NOt Take Them

Home from the Hospital is a GCM product the Safely helps the older client through discharge and the first 3 months to make sure they do not return to the hospital, which now is overrun with coronavirus patients and at capacity.

Home From the Hospital pinpoints exactly what the older person needs for discharge with the hospital and why the family is desperately calling for help. They are calling for help at a piercing decibel level because nursing homes will not take them for fear of COVID 19 infection of their residents

To do this, offer these products to families third parties, hospitals, and nursing homes in this crucial time. Develop continuously integrated solutions through a product procedure placed in your company operation manual, along with all of your products so you ensure your staff can deliver, step by a step-that high-end product that the Concierge client especially under the huge stress of the coronavirus with vulnerable parents -just purchased and demands.

If you do not have an operation manual, I have all these products in my GCM Operations Manual plus 11 more, with all the procedures in place so you can instantly offer them. I will offer a 20% discount for the GCM manual during the pandemic for Geriatric Care Management Agencies suffering during the coronavirus outbreak. Contact me here

Medicare For All Includes Long Term Care – Perhaps Pay Attention Now With -Covid 19 Raging ?

March 25, 2020

Long Term Care Not Covered by Medicare

Geriatric Care management and home care, among other critical services tin aging are not covered Long term care services, is not covered by Medicare. In Bernie Sanders & Elizabeth Warren’s Plan, Medicare for all would cover long term care, a point that the Washington Post said that Sanders did not emphasize enough.

Medicare For ALL Would Cover Long Term Care

Time Magazine, recently reported that Covid-19 ‘s effect right now is making Medicare for all seem like the present need nor an unaffordable dream . The “Department of Housing and Urban Development halted foreclosures and evictions during the emergency; the Department of Education slashed federal student loan interest rates to zero and will allow borrowers to completely suspend payments if needed; Congress is negotiating a plan to send direct cash payments to families, and a version of paid sick leave just became law.”

What If We Had Medicare For All During Covid 19 Pandemic?

If we had Medicare for all during the Covid 19 pandemic, we would be better able to disburse funds in emergency situations and to purchase necessary machinery, such as ventilators ( that only the president seems to be able to dispense through the Defence Production Act & does not, during a crisis and get them where they need, like the 30,000 needed and missing in New York) face masks that as so needed that the CVC recommended bandanas and a 10-year-old student in Boston is sewing herself the height of the pandemic right now.

Unlike our current health care system, Medicare for All would include specific funding for dealing with pandemics or other health emergencies that could be distributed quickly without requiring additional legislation of presidential planning, which seems not to have happened at all. The United States cannot be left unprepared for mass health risks like COVID-19. It is time to put in place Medicare for All and better protect the health of the American public.

Ethical Dilemma

This lack of Medicare covering Long term care leaves geriatric care managers in an ethical dilemma of being able to only be able to serve the upper 10% and leaving 90% of seniors and thus under 64 with chronic care needs like MS, unserved.

Elizabeth Warren’s plan for Medicare for all could cost 20 Trillion over 10 years. Existing Medicare over the 10-year period would cost 16 trillion. The bill we are just passing in Congress to fund is 2 Trillion. We will need another bill. Are all the mounting deaths from Covid 19, 55,000 people with Covid 19 and counting, disruption to business, our lives and the hospital really worth not paying attention to Medicare for All- which it looks like we just might be able to afford?

Find out about this ethical dilemma and what care managers must do to serve the upper 10%, and ignore lower 90%, who have no long-term care under Medicare .

Since geriatric care management must be privately paid for, in the absence of coverage under present Medicare, in spite of our moral dilemma

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