If you thought the situation was bad here, spare a thought for the US.
Howard Gleckman (pictured above), a Senior Contributor for Forbes and senior fellow at The Urban Institute with its Tax Policy Center and Program on Retirement, writes that nursing homes are starting to take patients from over-burdened hospitals, while assisted living facilities (ALFs) are accepting nursing home residents who must be relocated to make room for post-acute patients.
In Massachusetts, 12 nursing facilities have been designated to take COVID-19 patients, with the first 147 residents moved out of a facility in Worcester.
In New York – where cases have surged – all nursing facilities have been ordered to accept hospital discharges – even those who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Can you imagine this happening here?
Mr Gleckman argues that while some Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) may have the ventilators and staff to care for coronavirus patients because they provide post-acute services such as rehabilitation – unlike Australia – transfers should not happen if they put current residents at risk.
“Even in the best of circumstances these moves will be incredibly disruptive to residents, their families, staffs, and the facilities themselves,” he says, adding: “But in a pandemic where hospital beds may be insufficient to handle the need, designated skilled nursing facilities are a smart alternative.”
The writer also points to a range of other issues that need to be resolved first, including the availability of rapid test kits, training for staff to deal with more complex conditions and access to PPE.
“The system can make this shift work, but only if hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, home care agencies, states, and the federal government work together. And they don’t have much time,” he concluded.
A nightmare scenario.
