Nursing homes plagued by shortages of masks, gowns and testing
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Shortages of masks and gowns, as well as a lack of tests, contributed to the coronavirus outbreaks that claimed 1,428 lives in Pennsylvania nursing homes and personal care facilities so far, an industry leader said Wednesday.
Nursing homes and personal care facilities across Pennsylvania have been hot spots for infection, accounting for two-thirds of the state’s 2,195 coronavirus deaths as of Wednesday. That number included 22 deaths in Westmoreland County and 65 in Allegheny County.
Adam Marles, CEO of Leading Edge PA, a trade association that represents nearly 400 nursing and personal care homes serving more than 75,000 Pennsylvanians, said if officials can ensure that there will be adequate personal protective equipment and testing for coronavirus, the number of infections at those facilities should decline this summer.
“If not, we will continue to see cases because of the susceptibility of the population. … If we know who has it, we can isolate them and treat it more effectively. But the need is great and supplies are not available,” Marles said.
Finding out where those cases occur, however, is another issue in Pennsylvania, where the state health department has refused to name specific institutions.
Marles, who joined Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale in a Facebook Live press conference, said his group is urging members to be as transparent as possible regarding information about infections.
“We’re reporting to the Department of Health every day when there are cases,” Marles said in response to DePasquale’s questions about transparency with regard to nursing home care.
The auditor general is pushing for those numbers to be made public in real time so families and state officials can make informed decisions about care.
“It’s public information,” he said.
Although the federal government has a public database detailing information about covid-19 in Veterans Administration health care facilities, the Pennsylvania Department of Health will not release information about deaths and diagnoses in state-run veterans homes and nursing and personal care facilities. It has opted instead to list such information only by county.
“We are constantly weighing releasing information publicly and the right to privacy and confidentiality for Pennsylvanians,” Health Department spokesman Nate Wardle said of that policy.
Although nursing and personal care facilities can be hot spots for coronavirus infections in Pennsylvania, Marles said fewer than 25% of 2,000 licensed facilities in Pennsylvania have had a confirmed case of covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
But he said many facilities do not have the ability to test for the highly contagious virus. He said some have contracted with labs to do the testing, while others “don’t have the wherewithal to do that.”
He said, in the majority of cases where infections have swept through facilities, it was because it spread through someone with an asymptomatic infection or because testing was lacking to confirm the presence of the virus.
Asked about allegations that some facilities are refusing to send patients with covid-19 to hospitals, Marles punted to institutional medical staff.
“The doctors ultimately are making decisions in the best interests of those they are caring for,” he said.