Nearly 10% of the state's confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ohio are in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and assisted living communities. Some residents and staff are among the dead.
The state says it will shed light on more information about the spread of coronavirus in nursing homes, but some data - like the number of deaths - will remain hidden.
Matthew Steele’s father Doug Steele lives in an assisted living community near Cincinnati after having a stroke a few years ago.
Steele said he’s gotten regular calls about testing and was notified when the first case of COVID-19 was found in the facility. But he says the calls have slowed down since.
“They said, 'We’re going to pause on letting you know every time we get a positive test because we know that there are going to be more,'” Steele said. “'And we’ll share with you what we’re doing. And if your loved one is exhibiting symptoms we will call you right away and let you know,' but that we wouldn’t be getting regular updates every time they got a positive test.”
A nursing home near Seattle was one of the first fatal hotspots of the coronavirus early in the pandemic in the U.S. So those who have family members living in long-term care facilities, and those who are working in them, have been on high alert for a while.
Pete Van Runkle of the Ohio Health Care Association, representing more than 2,000 nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other similar residences, said nursing homes are trying to communicate accurate information.
“Our members want to make sure that everybody is aware and that rumors and innuendo doesn’t start flowing around. They need to hear the true situation and what the facility is doing to safeguard everybody else when there has been a positive case,” Van Runkle said.
While Van Runkle said most facilities in his organization have been communicating with family members, soon those notifications will be required, because of an order from Gov. Mike DeWine. The governor said these cases may not be public records.
“What I made was a policy decision,” DeWine said. “It wasn’t a legal decision. It was a policy decision that came from my heart and that is that people have a right to know what’s going on in a nursing home.”
The state is also requiring nursing homes to notify the Ohio Department of Health of positive coronavirus tests.
Van Runkle said most nursing homes have tried to be transparent about what’s happening because they have lost staff members to COVID-19.
“I know that there have been some cases where they have passed away, yes,” Van Runkle said.
He also confirmed there have been deaths among residents, too.
“Yes – we’ve had hundreds of deaths in Ohio and some of those have been folks living in facilities,” Van Runkle said.
Van Runkle said nursing homes want to be a higher priority for testing, saying congregate settings where people tend to have worse outcomes should be top of the list.
As of Thursday, the Ohio Department of Health reports that 836 of the state's more than 7,600 confirmed coronavirus cases have been residents at nursing homes and long-term care and residential facilities. The disease has spread to 107 nursing homes in 31 counties.
But Health Department director Amy Acton said with such limited testing available, she says they’re trying to test judiciously, prioritizing health care workers and the sickest patients.
“We are doing testing in nursing homes, but sometimes based on the history that is being taken there," Acton said. "They might do one or two or three cases, know they have it and say, ‘We know we have it.' So it's a very individual nursing home situation."
Steele said he has confidence that the state is concerned about the safety of nursing home residents and staff, and he’s pleased with the actions of the facility where his father lives.
“Now, does that mean that I have supreme confidence in our ability to keep them all protected? I’m not sure that I can say that just based on what I see and the availability of resources,” Steele said. “We can’t just create tests so that we can just test every resident in every one of these facilities, which is what I wish that we could do.”
The state’s COVID-19 website will now include names of nursing home, assisted living and long term care facilities where positive coronavirus cases have been found, just as the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation lists the prisons where the virus has been discovered.
However, the state won’t list the total of deaths of residents or staff from nursing homes and long term care facilities.
Do you have questions about the coronavirus in Ohio? Ask below as part of our Curious Cbus series.
_
