Connecticut’s absurd COVID order endangers nursing home patients — again

 Administrators of Connecticut’s 209 nursing homes and long-term care facilities were stunned at the start of this year when the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH) told them they must start accepting patients infected with COVID-19 to relieve pressure on overflowing hospitals.

It was like déjà vu all over again for those who worked in nursing homes during the early days of the pandemic, when deaths from COVID in states like Connecticut, New York and New Jersey were highly concentrated in elderly care facilities.

Despite being one of the most vaccinated groups, people over the age of 65 account for three-quarters of the total deaths from COVID. A combination of close quarters and patients with compromised immune systems made the virus spread like wildfire through nursing homes.

The National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that any state considering “relief health care” facilities, such as nursing homes, must ensure that transferred COVID patients won’t compromise those facilities’ ability to prevent the spread of the virus internally.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ignored the science, forcing nursing homes to take COVID-positive patients at the start of the pandemic. But he reversed his mandate only six weeks later after seeing the deadly consequences. A New York State Bar Association study published last June showed that this six-week period alone caused “several hundred and possibly more than 1,000 deaths of nursing home residents.”

Connecticut Gov. Lamont (right) is taking a page out of ex-NY Gov. Cuomo’s book by urging nursing homes to take in patients discharged from a hospital “regardless of COVID-19 status.”

Reuters; Getty Images

While neighboring Connecticut never stopped allowing infected patients in, most nursing homes required two negative COVID tests at least 24 hours apart before they were willing to accept any new patient or one discharged from a hospital looking to free up capacity.

This all changed with Connecticut’s DPH memo this year, urging nursing homes to take in patients discharged from a hospital “regardless of COVID-19 status.” After pushback from nursing home administrators, a spokesperson for Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont clarified that he was not forcing them to take COVID-positive patients, but they needed to call DPH and explain why if they didn’t.

One medical director at a Connecticut nursing home lamented on social media that “if the hospital makes a referral of a COVID positive person and we decline, we are immediately reported to DPH and have to justify the decision.” Like the bully on the school playground saying — “Go ahead, I double dare you” — only this time lives are at stake. 

Tragically, the impact of Lamont’s policy has been immediate. Data released last week show that close to 100 (98) residents died in Connecticut nursing homes in the four weeks since these facilities were encouraged to take COVID-infected patients — almost four times the number who died in the four weeks preceding the order.

A man visits his mother through her apartment window at her Windsor, Conn., nursing home during the height of the pandemic on May 14, 2020.

AP

Meanwhile, the number of nursing home residents infected with the virus more than doubled during this time period — from 965 to 2,378. In contrast, infection rates, hospitalizations and COVID-related deaths in Connecticut’s general population declined during this same period as Omicron continued to subside.

Sensing the criticism this unwanted spike in cases might bring, the governor hastily issued another executive order, this time mandating that everyone entering nursing homes show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test before being allowed in — except of course for the COVID-positive hospital patients rolling into nursing homes every day!

Lamont and his DPH have other choices available to them if they are willing to think creatively. They could use the $6 billion in federal COVID money sent to Connecticut to set up separate recovery centers for recovering COVID-positive patients — taking the strain off hospitals while keeping these patients isolated and free from transmitting the virus to others. 

Families of patients who died of COVID in New York nursing homes protested loudly against Cuomo’s policy in 2020. Connecticut families should demand better, too.

AP

They could offer short-term bonuses or temporary pay raises to qualified health care workers who are retired or on leave to incentivize them to go back to work now and help get us through this peak. They could look to recruit healthcare workers from other parts of the country less impacted by the current COVID wave to come to Connecticut and help.

At a minimum, they could change the current biweekly reporting of nursing home infections and deaths to a daily report to get an early read and react before it’s too late.

One thing we’ve learned is that “one size does not fit all” when it comes to COVID.  While Connecticut and other Northeastern states rejoice about overall Omicron rates coming down, the data shows that infections and deaths in Connecticut nursing homes are still a major concern. It’s not too late to do something about it, if state leaders have the courage to act now.

A former executive at General Electric and CFO of UBS Investment Bank, Bob Stefanowski was the 2018 Republican candidate for governor of Connecticut and is now a candidate in the 2022 Connecticut gubernatorial election.

https://nypost.com/2022/02/12/connecticut-nursing-homes-endangered-by-covid-order-again/