The Los Angeles Times says hospitals across the country are trying desperately to discharge patients to clear beds for the expected wave of COVID-19 victims. But ‘skilled nursing’ homes – understandably – are reluctant to accept returning residents or new patients without them being cleared for the virus – and there is a major backlog in testing.
One man told the paper he has been waiting on test results for 12 days for his 99-year-old mother whose home won’t take her back from hospital after she recovered from a bout of pneumonia.
There are also reports of the reverse problem with management sending residents to hospitals if they show minor symptoms such as a cough – but then refusing to take residents back without a negative test.
Dr Michael Wasserman (pictured), a geriatrician who is the medical director at the Eisenberg Village nursing home Reseda and president of the California Association of Long Term Medicine, said he won’t accept any returning resident until they have two negative coronavirus tests performed 24 hours apart, saying it would be “akin to premeditated murder” to allow a potentially infected resident into the facility.
“I’m afraid there will be a minimum of 50 more Kirklands [a reference to the home in Seattle where 35 residents have so far died after a coronavirus outbreak] in California before this is done,” Wasserman said.
The California Department of Public Health has sent a letter to all nursing homes on March 20 telling them to “prepare to care for residents with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection.”
The CEOs that we have spoken to here so far say their policy would be to have the resident admitted to hospital as soon as possible.
But what will happen if the hospital beds fill up?
