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Ensure access to in-person visitation following federal and state guidelines for safety and require continued access to virtual visitation for all residents. Prioritize regular and ongoing testing and adequate personal protective equipment for residents and staff—as well as inspectors and any visitors. Require daily reporting of facilities with confirmed cases to help manage the public health response and keep families up-to-date. RALEIGH -- The NC Department of Health and Human Services announced some good news for people who have been waiting patiently, as well as painfully, to visit their loved ones in long-term care facilities. Hold long-term care facilities accountable when they fail to provide adequate care to residents. Improve transparency focused on daily, public reporting of cases and deaths in facilities; communication with families about discharges and transfers; and accountability for state and federal funding that goes to facilities.
Make sure that families get the information they need about their loved ones including knowing their rights when residents are transferred or discharged because of COVID-19. Many Americans think about retirement as the last big plan they’ll ever have to make, but they’ll need to plan to protect themselves against the risk of making poor decisions later in life. In “Make a Plan While You Can,” AARP Bulletin’s personal finance expert offers advice from making decisions on independent or assisted living to designating power of attorney on major medical decisions in case you can’t make them yourself. Men represent 2 out of 5 of the more than 40 million unpaid family caregivers in the U.S., but the role of male caregivers remains hidden. In honor of National Family Caregivers Month, AARP Bulletinreveals why these 16 million men are the best-kept secret of caregivers in America, and why they are breaking stereotypes of the typical caregiver. Also, in this month’s issue, from putting soap in a nylon stocking for a non-slippery soap to using glow tape for safe walks in the house at night, AARP Bulletin offers six clever and low-cost ways caregivers can make everyday tasks easier.
AARP Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard
AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With nearly 38 million members and offices in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AARP works to strengthen communities and advocate for what matters most to families with a focus on health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment.
Some states combine data for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities such as assisted living; others combine resident and staff cases and deaths, while others provide limited or no data at all. The threat of COVID-19 means nursing home residents generally can’t have in-person visitors. It’s time for full disclosure and immediate action to protect the residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Help residents stay connected with their families through video chats and phone calls.
AARP Urges Feds to Strengthen Nursing Home Protections
The CARES Act relief bill included virtual visitation for federal prisoners, but there were no similar provisions for seniors in nursing homes or other long-term care facilities. The state fact sheets include several measures of the percentage of total state deaths and cases that occurred among nursing home residents and nursing home staff. Because the denominator data is from a different source, the reported data may result in a percentage less than 0% or greater than 100%, which is impossible. The value of each such measure is capped at 100%, and values of less than 0% are marked as NA. These measures should not be used to compute the number of cases or deaths occurring outside of nursing homes.
Arizona’s rates are the lowest across the board, with only 74% of residents vaccinated, 58% boosted, and 26% up to date. As of mid-November, 87% of nursing home residents were fully vaccinated and 75% had gotten at least one booster shot; however, only 45% were up to date on vaccinations with the bivalent booster. The rates of resident deaths and resident cases during the 4 weeks ending November 20 are up moderately compared to the previous 4 weeks, while staff cases are up slightly. More recently however, in the weeks ending November 27 and December 4, resident and staff cases are surging rapidly. You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. AARP said any weakening of the federal regulations would lead to situations that would have a negative effect on safety for nursing home residents.
Protect Nursing Home Residents
However we are hearing facilities are slow to open back up and when they do the hours are too limited, making visitation difficult. In the other 44 states, fewer than one third of staff are up to date on vaccines and less than one tenth of facilities have reached the 75% threshold. This weakening of enforcement represents a sharp departure in policy for CMS, which in 2016 issued regulations that included improved protections against abuse, neglect, exploitation and evictions. For example, last November, CMS stopped using for 18 months a number of the enforcement remedies it has to address certain violations, including financial penalties and the termination of eligibility for Medicaid and Medicare funding.
Ensure quality care for residents through adequate staffing, oversight, and access to in-person formal advocates, called long-term care Ombudsmen. Please act now to protect our most vulnerable - include language in the state budget to ensure adequate staffing at nursing homes. Ensuring families and friends can visit their loved ones in nursing homes has been a top priority for AARP, and AARP is advocating for visitation for all to resume as soon as possible, which means that it must be safe. Visitation is key to combatting social isolation which has proven negative impacts on people's health. With new COVID-19 cases in North Carolina long-term care facilities declining rapidly over the past several weeks, facilities that meet criteria have been given the green light to resume indoor visitation while continuing to follow infection prevention recommendations. Data points that go back prior to the first reporting date, including the “since January 2020” counts of resident cases and deaths in the state fact sheets, may significantly undercount the total number of cases and deaths.
Surging Cases and Deaths in Nursing Homes Suggest Another Winter COVID-19 Spike
Vaccination data points are based on the most current week of data for each facility, as long as it is within the last four weeks. The Dashboard’s use of multiple weeks of data and definition of booster rate and “up to date” rate as a percentage of all residents/staff means that rates may be systematically different than what is reported elsewhere. The uptick in COVID-19 cases in August 2021 prompted AARP to call for requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for nursing home residents and workers. AARP is now calling on nursing homes to require COVID-19 booster shots for residents and staff. Bivalent boosters, designed to protect against the Omicron variants as well as previous strains, have been available since September but utilization has been low. As of mid-November, two and a half months since the shots became available, fewer than half of nursing home residents (45%) and less than one quarter of health care staff (22%) were up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations.
Combat often-fatal isolation by connecting residents with their families through virtual visitation. Require nursing home owners to put the majority of taxpayer funding toward direct care for residents—and report this spending. The percentage of facilities in Texas reporting a shortage of nurses or aides decreased slightly to nearly 14 percent in the four weeks ending March 20. Rates of COVID-19 deaths and cases in nursing homes have declined dramatically in Texas and nationwide as the Omicron wave recedes, according to AARP’s Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard, covering the four-week period ending March 20.
Message Body I support AARP’s fight to pass nursing home reform legislation because Virginia’s nearly 30,000 nursing home residents deserve better. It’s time for facilities to put the safety and well-being of nursing home residents first. Protect seniors by ensuring that nursing home residents are provided with safe environments and high-quality care.
Our leaders must act immediately to stem the loss of life due to coronavirus and improve conditions in America’s long-term care facilities. AARP will continue to shine a light on what’s happening in nursing homes so that families have the information they need to make decisions, and nursing homes and lawmakers can be held accountable. California is the leading the way in staff vaccinations, with nearly half (49%) of staff up to date on vaccinations, and two in five (39%) of facilities achieving 75% of staff up to date. While the majority of facilities in every state have at least 75% of staff vaccinated , only 1 out of every 12 facilities has reached that threshold for the percentage of staff up to date on vaccinations as of mid-November.
In Congress, the ACCESS Act (S. 3517/H.R. 6487) focuses on funding and supporting virtual visitation in nursing homes. This is appalling, and a persistent lack of transparency is compounding the anxiety of family members who are unable to visit their loved ones. Until recently, there was no federal requirement for nursing homes to report coronavirus outbreaks and COVID-19 deaths, making it impossible to understand the true scope of the problem and what steps need to be taken to protect residents and staff. Find vaccination rates of both residents and staff at any Medicare-certified nursing home and compare it to state and national averages on the Medicare.gov Care Compare website. Booster rates for nursing home residents and staff, including facility level data, are available from CMS. In May 2021, CMS issued an interim final rule and guidance requiring the reporting of nursing home resident and staff vaccination status.
AARP also works for individuals in the marketplace by sparking new solutions and allowing carefully chosen, high-quality products and services to carry the AARP name. As a trusted source for news and information, AARP produces the world’s largest circulation publications, AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. Now offers information about vaccination and booster rates within individual nursing homes and how they compare to state and national averages. About one thousand nursing home residents died nationwide of COVID-19 during the Dashboard’s most recent reporting period, with more than 25,000 new resident and staff cases reported nationwide as well.
At the high end, 95% of residents in South Dakota are fully vaccinated, and 70% are up to date. The rate of resident cases in the week ending December 4 is the highest since early February, during last winter’s Omicron surge. Most facilities now meet criteria for in person visitation because there are no outbreaks.
AARP continues engaging with CMS to urge the agency to remain vigilant in efforts to protect long-term care facility residents and staff. A July 2021 AARP letter to CMS included recommendations that the federal government commit to working with states, long-term care facilities, and other entities, as needed, to ensure that those facilities can access and administer vaccines for the foreseeable future. Everyone must work together to ensure continued vaccine and booster access and administration. AARP also noted the importance of access to vaccines and COVID-19 tests in a December 2021 letter to CMS supporting COVID-19 vaccination requirements for certain health care workers, including staff of nursing homes participating in Medicare and Medicaid. The COVID-19 pandemic has swept the nation and its impact has been especially deadly for residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. AARP’s Nursing Home COVID-19 dashboard has tracked five categories of impact since summer 2020, as well as vaccination rates of nursing home residents and health care staff, updated every month to track trends over time.
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