Nursing homes and retirement communities now death traps – over 7,000 COVID deaths

 

I heard Dr. Sapphire on Fox news yesterday say that people with Covid 19 were transferred to nursing homes. A story to be told.

As many of my readers know I live in a large retirement community which includes continuing care – thus a nursing “home” with various levels of care is included. More about my situation, but let’s get to how we got here.

Nursing homes have become the dumping ground for hospitals who have taken their pound of Medicare – they receive a flat rate, more if patient is on a vent- and then must find a way to get rid of them.

Enter Democrat Governors from New York, New Jersey and Virginia.

 

Discharging COVID-19 Patients To Nursing Homes Called A 'Recipe For Disaster' https://t.co/PlD3Sd9pOz

— Bunkerville (@bunkerville) April 20, 2020

 

Nursing homes have been the sites of some of the earliest — and deadliest — outbreaks of COVID-19. Some people who run such facilities are understandably leery of accepting new patients who might spread the virus.

Nonetheless, some of the largest states are now ordering nursing homes to accept patients who have been discharged from the hospital but are still recovering from COVID-19.

These state directives have been strongly condemned by the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Dr. Sabine von Preyss, chief medical officer for Avalon Health Care Group and president of the society’s Washington state chapter, says that a distinction must be made between nursing homes that have suffered COVID-19 outbreaks and those that are still virus-free.

“The question is, should we be forced to introduce a disease with such deadly potential into a population that has been sheltered?” says von Preyss. “And my experience tells me that would be ill-advised.”

Think about this:

Half Of Virginia’s Coronavirus Outbreaks Are In Long-Term Care Facilities

 

'They're Death Pits': Virus Claims At Least 7,000 Lives in U.S. Nursing Homes https://t.co/ep1X0RTWnN via @YahooNews

— Bunkerville (@bunkerville) April 20, 2020

 

Now that we have established these facts, let’s back up a bit.

 

The first warning of the devastation that the coronavirus could wreak inside US nursing homes came in late February, when residents of a facility in suburban Seattle perished, one by one, as families waited helplessly outside.

In the ensuing six weeks, large and shockingly lethal outbreaks have continued to ravage nursing homes across the nation, undeterred by urgent new safety requirements. Now a nationwide tally by The New York Times has found the number of people living in or connected to nursing homes who have died of the coronavirus to be at least 7,000, far higher than previously known.

It is a tragedy that is continuing to unfold, and one that even the dire figures that are known only partially capture. The number of cases at these facilities — which include nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, memory care facilities, retirement and senior communities and long-term rehabilitation facilities — is almost certainly still higher since many facilities, counties and states have not provided detailed information.

The outbreaks have been spread across the sprawling senior-care industry, including at publicly run facilities, those run by nonprofit groups and others managed by large corporations.

All of these factors have allowed the virus to thrive, making its way into at least 4,100 US nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, despite increasingly desperate efforts to stop the spread.

Read more

Seniors Dying in Nursing Care Facilities b/c Gov Cuomo ordered Coronavirus Patients be Housed There.

 

 

https://t.co/96zbh5fX6J

Why did many residents in nursing homes expire because of COVID in NYS? Because they were mandated to take COVID patients discharged from hospitals. What a STUPID move putting those infected with elderly people.

— Brn2Wander ****** TEXT TRUMP to 88022 (@Brn2Wander1) April 20, 2020

 

 

Relocating patients with COVID-19 to nursing homes

 

 

 

Here I am in bucolic Amish country – Lancaster County…..more retirement communities and nursing homes per square mile than anywhere else in Pennsylvania. I myself live in an Independent living situation within the retirement community. Lucky me.  Now the secret.

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. —

The Lancaster County coroner said more than 80% of the COVID-19 deaths in Lancaster County have occurred in patients at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said the largest number of deaths have happened in Lancaster Township, and three facilities have been hit especially hard.

At Conestoga View on East King Street, 24 patients have died.

Hamilton Arms on South West End Avenue reports that 20 residents have died, and another 40 patients and 24 staff members tested positive for COVID-19.

The virus has claimed 15 lives at ManorCare Health Services on Abbeyville Road.

 

 

The truth? Sadly there is no required reporting of nursing home Covid  illness and deaths for most states. We have no idea of the total number. Just the States that have reported.

While we hear the death report with our evening dinner every night, and how we must play the game of useless masks and distancing… by the way no N95 masks are available here for anyone that I see, let alone surgical masks, yet they are mandatory….We were told to “make our masks.” No one has any idea that their hand made cloth masks are a potential method of infecting themselves and clueless how to make themselves safe.

So I sit on death row…… a knock on the door, food left and the deliverer disappears into the distance. Yet no news about testing of the employees who will sooner or later  visit the plague upon us.The gnashing of teeth about testing. But not for us or the employees. So we wait…….when its all done, we will be forgotten.

I doubt we, living here, have time for herd immunity to help us out.

Oh by the way…… We have a Progressive Democrat Governor too….