Category Archives for Nursing Homes

Nursing home workforce crisis deepens with minimum staffing standards

Published in RINewsToday on February 13, 2023

“The long-term care industry is enduring the worst workforce crisis in its history, in Rhode Island, and across the country. Although providers are committed to recruiting and retaining staff to provide quality care for residents, despite our best efforts, many nursing homes have fallen short of the staffing ratio set by the RI Department of Health,” notes James Nyberg, Executive Director of the East Providence-based Leading Age Rhode Island (LARI), representing nonprofit providers of aging services.

“We are extremely  concerned about the impending fines that will be imposed on nursing homes here in Rhode Island as a result of our state’s existing nursing home minimum staffing ratio statute,” said Nyberg. Because of staffing ratio mandates, “the industry would have faced fines of over $11 million, in just one sample quarter (April – June 2022), since over 70% of nursing homes are not in compliance,” he said.  

“While April-June was a sample, the fines go into effect for July-September and we will receive a similar notice in just a few weeks, with only 10 days to pay the fine,” says Nyberg, stressing that these fines will only increase going forward if nursing homes are unable to meet the minimum staffing ratio.

Nyberg calls on the Rhode Island General Assembly to rescue Rhode Island’s nursing homes and provide relief from these penalties by delaying them and exploring an alternative approach to support the efforts of nursing homes to meet the ratio.  He warns that the current fine-based approach is excessive and counterproductive and will lead to reduced access to care and threaten the survival of the state’s nursing homes.

Nyberg points out that the current workforce shortages are already preventing nursing homes from filling open positions, limiting new admissions, and forcing organization closures (five nursing homes have already closed since the COVID pandemic began).  These challenges are also resulting in backlogs at hospitals, which are unable to discharge patients due to reduced capacity in nursing homes.  

“We are working with numerous stakeholders on various initiatives to develop a pipeline of workers, but the simple fact is that it will take time.  In addition, as you know, the industry has faced years of underfunding from Medicaid, which pays for the majority of nursing home care.  This has made recruiting and retaining workers more difficult than ever,” says Nyberg. 

John Gage, President of the Rhode Island Health Care Association (RIHCA) agrees with Nyberg’s assessment of the nursing home workforce.  “Nursing homes across the nation are facing an historic labor shortage as the direct result of chronic Medicaid underfunding and the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the workforce, he says, noting that the state’s nursing home workforce is down 20% since the start of the pandemic, with 2,000 workers lost from Jan. 2020 to June 2022.  Nationwide, the nursing home workforce is down 210,000 workers.

According to Gage, Rhode Island’s staffing mandate, while well-intentioned, will siphon tens of millions of dollars from resident care. In the first year of full implementation of the state’s minimum staffing mandate, RIHCA estimates that facilities will be fined upwards of $60 million. “These fines will imperil care, not bolster it,” he warns.  

Without legislative action, Rhode Island nursing homes will be fined an estimated $11 million on or about February 28, 2023, because of their inability to attract workers to meet the mandate from July 1, 2022, through September 30, 2022, Gage charges. “There are simply not enough available workers to fill the open staff positions, and resources are scarce.  Nursing homes will be devastated by these fines.  Facilities will reduce admissions, backing up hospital referrals and clogging hospital beds.  More nursing facilities will close – five have already closed since the beginning of the pandemic,” he predicts.  

Gage asks, “Who will care for Rhode Island’s frailest elders?” To recreate a minimum staffing mandate in nursing homes on the federal level would be a huge mistake, especially given the historic workforce crisis here in Rhode Island and nationwide,” he says.  

Gage’s comments echo concerns expressed by another group of US Senators in Jan. 20 correspondence (https://www.tester.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/1-20-23-Nursing-Home-Staffing-Mandate-Letter-FINAL.pdf) sent to CMS by Senators John Bourasso, Jon Tester, and eleven other US Senators.  They caution the agency that a one-size fits all mandate would undermine access to care for patients, and they encouraged CMS to work with Congress on tailored solutions that address the workforce challenges facing nursing facilities.

At the federal level

Just days ago, U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aging, and Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to encourage the federal agency to establish minimum staffing standards in nursing homes to ensure high-quality care for nursing home residents. In Feb. 10 correspondence, Casey and Wyden, along with Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) urged CMS to advance the agency’s ongoing study to determine adequate staffing requirements in nursing homes.

“We appreciate the work that CMS has undertaken to promote safety and quality in nursing homes and applaud the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to protecting our nation’s seniors,” said the senators in Feb. 10 correspondence, urging CMS to “bring this work to completion.” 

“In our view, that means continuing the agency’s ongoing study to determine the level of staffing that is necessary to ensure safe and high-quality care for nursing home residents, developing an evidence-based and actionable proposal for mandatory minimum staffing levels, and a robust and transparent process—including direct stakeholder engagement— that will allow for further discussion and fine-tuning of requirements before the proposal is finalized,” wrote the senators.

The senators noted that studies have shown a correlation between inadequate staffing levels and lower quality of care. More recent studies have demonstrated that higher nurse staffing ratios mitigated the effect of COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes and resulted in fewer deaths. A recent Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General report examining the high level of COVID-19 infections in nursing homes also pointed to the need for the establishment of minimum staffing requirements.  

In the correspondence, the senators cite the Social Security Act, which requires skilled nursing facilities to “provide 24-hour licensed nursing service which is sufficient to meet nursing needs of its residents,” including the services of a registered nurse at least 8 consecutive hours per day, 7 days a week. The letter commends CMS for working to update this vague standard that has led to substantial variation in staffing levels and quality of patient care across facilities.

“Achieving the shared goal of ensuring quality care in nursing homes nationwide is a complex undertaking, says LeadingAge’s Ruth Katz, senior vice president, policy. LeadingAge is an association of nonprofit providers of aging services, including nursing homes.

“As our Get Real on Ratios proposal highlights, a number of conditions must be met in advance of any mandate implementation,” suggests Katz. “The senators correspondence to CMS is a promising development; it covers many of the same points as our Get Real on Ratios proposal – a recognition of the critical need for adequate reimbursement; that one size does not fit all, and that workforce shortages will need to be addressed with additional support. Without addressing these, staffing mandates are impossible. We look forward to continuing our discussions with Congressional leaders on this critical issue so that older adults and families can access much-needed care and services,” she says.

“The Senior Agenda Coalition of RI fully supports the need to develop national staffing standards to ensure quality care is provided to nursing home residents across our nation. It is important to note that Rhode Island has been a leader in this area. For many years our state has required 24/7 RN coverage in nursing homes and in 2021 the legislature passed the Nursing Home Staffing and Quality Care Act that includes staffing standards,” says Maureen Maigret, Policy Advisor to Senior Agenda Coalition of RI. “Now we must work to address workforce shortage issues and ensure that adequate government resources are provided especially through Medicaid payments so the standards can be met, and our critical direct care workers receive competitive living wages in order to keep them working in long term care,” she adds.

As the House Leadership hammers out the FY 2024 budget, it is crucial that adequate Medicaid funding is allocated to allow nursing homes to attract the necessary staff to meet the state’s minimum nursing standards that it codified into law. We must address this policy problem now rather than just kick the can down the road.

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CMS Moves to Strengthen Nursing Home Safety and Clarity of Consumer Info

Published in RINewsToday on January 23, 2023

To improve transparency of nursing home consumer information, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), will now post Care Compare citations that are under dispute by nursing homes on its website.  CMS will also take steps to protect nursing home residents from being inappropriately diagnosed with schizophrenia which oftentimes leads to improper use of anti-psychotic medications to sedate and chemically restrain residents.

“We have made significant progress in decreasing the inappropriate use of antipsychotic medications in nursing homes, but more needs to be done,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, announcing the new guidance this week. “People in nursing homes deserve safe, high-quality care, and we are redoubling our oversight efforts to make sure that facilities are not prescribing unnecessary medications,” she says.

CMS’s actions advance President Biden’s goal of reinforcing safeguards against unnecessary medication use and treatments that was outlined in his State of the Union address to create an Action Plan for “Protecting Seniors by Improving Safety and Quality of Care in the Nation’s Nursing Homes.”

Tackling the inappropriate drugging of Nursing Home residents

Beginning this month, CMS will conduct targeted, off-site audits of nursing homes to determine whether facilities are accurately assessing and coding individuals with a schizophrenia diagnosis. Nursing home residents erroneously diagnosed with schizophrenia are at risk of receiving poor care and being prescribed inappropriate anti-psychotic medications. Anti-psychotic medications are especially dangerous to these residents due to their potential devastating side effects, including death.

According to the Washington, DC-based National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, in 2008, CMS first introduced a quality measure in its Care Compare rating system that calculates the percentage of long-stay residents (over 100 days) that were receiving anti-psychotic medications. This quality measure was initially introduced to address the practice of some nursing homes of illegally using anti-psychotic medications to sedate residents with dementia or other increased patient care needs, rather than providing appropriate hands-on care interventions.

The measure, excluding residents with certain diagnoses, including schizophrenia, Huntington’s disease, and Tourette’s syndrome, resulted in some nursing homes improperly diagnosing residents with schizophrenia, observed the Consumer Voice, a national organization representing consumers in issues related to long-term care, helping to ensure consumers are empowered to advocate for themselves.      

CMS’s new guidance acknowledges that there has been a steady rise in schizophrenia diagnoses since the quality measure was first introduced, charges the Consumer Voice, noting that it comes on the heels of a report issued by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) which found that from 2015-2019 there was a 194% increase in the number of residents diagnosed with schizophrenia who did not have that diagnosis prior to admission to the nursing home.

“It is important to note that it is extremely rare for schizophrenia to suddenly occur in older people,” says the Consumer Voice, stating that the onset of schizophrenia generally occurs in someone’s late teens through their twenties.

CMS announced that it will begin to conduct audits of nursing homes with high rates of schizophrenia diagnoses and “examine the facility’s evidence for appropriately documenting, assessing, and coding a diagnosis of schizophrenia.” Facilities that have “inaccuracies” will have their Five-Star Quality Measure Rating adjusted. CMS will downgrade the facility’s Quality Measure ratings to one star, which would drop their Overall Star Rating as well. CMS will monitor each facility’s data to determine whether they have addressed the identified issues. After that, CMS will decide whether any downgrades should be reversed.

While Consumer Voice has expressed significant concern with the accuracy of CMS’s Quality Measure, it supports these actions. The Quality Measure rating often inflates a facility’s overall 5-Star rating on Care Compare. This action will help incentivize compliance and make sure the public is aware of these illegal practices in nursing homes, says the consumer advocacy group.

Increased transparency

Separately, CMS announced it plans to take a new step to increase the transparency of nursing home information provided to consumers by publicly displaying survey citations that facilities are disputing. Currently, when a facility disputes a survey deficiency, that deficiency is not posted to Care Compare until the dispute process is complete. This process usually takes approximately 60 days; however, some cases can take longer. 

Although the number of actual deficiencies under dispute is relatively small, they can include severe instances of non-compliance such as Immediate Jeopardy (IJ) citations. This level of citation occurs when the health and safety of residents could be at risk for serious injury, serious harm, serious impairment, or death. Displaying this information while it is under dispute can help consumers make more informed choices when it comes to evaluating and choosing a facility. This new information will begin appearing on Care Compare on January 25th. While citations will be publicly displayed, they will not be included in the Five-Star Quality Rating calculation until the dispute is complete. 

“We support anything that CMS can reasonably do to improve the health and safety of seniors in long-term care, especially those with cognitive impairment. When it comes to the nursing home industry’s concerns about new CMS rules, we think it’s best to err on the side of transparency. Seniors and their families need as much information as possible to make informed decisions about long-term care,” says a spokesperson for the Washington, DC-based National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, an advocacy group whose mission is to protect Social Security and Medicare.

Local reaction:  “You cannot un-ring a bell”

RI Health Care Association

“We fully support improving nursing home transparency, safety and quality, and accountability regarding our members’ service to the residents and patients entrusted to their care,” says John E. Gage, President and CEO of Rhode Island’s Health Care Association, representing 64 of the 80 nursing facilities in the state. “Eliminating any inappropriate use of psychotropic medications and ensuring the highest quality of care is a shared focus of both CMS and RIHCA,” notes Gage.

“We strongly disagree with CMS’ decision to post of deficiencies that are in the process of being disputed through established CMS policies, regardless of their scope and severity, says Gage. “Posting deficiencies that, in many instances, are incorrect, inaccurately cited or cited at an inappropriate level of scope and severity, during an approved appeals process is unfair and could damage a facility’s reputation unfairly,” he adds.

According to Gage, doing this is akin to convicting someone before their full trial, (prosecution and defense alike) before the verdict is announced. “You cannot “un-ring a bell,” he says.

“As mentioned by CMS, we are just talking about a relatively small number of deficiencies,” states Gage. Rather than potentially posting erroneous deficiencies, he calls on CMS to speed up the process of conducting Informal Dispute Resolutions (IDRs) or Independent Dispute Resolutions (IIDRs) to no more than forty-five (45) days to ensure that accurate information is posted timely. IDRs and IIDRs are two different options from CMS that nursing homes can choose to appeal of cited deficiencies.

“As to the changes to the public reporting and the Five-Star Quality Rating System, we are disappointed that the Biden Administration and CMS have apparently made this determination administratively, without any comment period to allow for an opportunity for nursing homes and the public to provide feedback,” says Gage.

LeadingAge RI

“I appreciate CMS’s goal of increasing oversight of unnecessary antipsychotic medication use, although it should be noted that there has been a National Partnership to reduce the unnecessary use of antipsychotic drugs for years, so the industry has been very engaged in these efforts already,” notes James Nyberg, Executive Director of LeadingAge RI, a not-for-profit membership organization comprised of not-for-profit providers of aging services. 

Nyberg expresses concern about CMS posting deficiencies that are under dispute publicly. “That is taking a guilty before proven innocent approach, which is unfair and detrimental to providers. There is an existing process to resolve disputes over deficiencies, and this seems to short-circuit it, especially when deficiencies can be/and are overturned during the process.  One more blow to a beleaguered industry,” he says.

Long-Term Care Ombudsman

“The inappropriate use of antipsychotic medications in nursing homes has been an on ongoing issue for many years,” observes Kathleen Heren, Rhode Island’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman. “It takes a skilled practitioner who gives a battery of tests to diagnose someone with schizophrenia. This shouldn’t be determined by a hospital intern who spends 20 minutes with an agitated resident in a hospital emergency room,” she says.

According to Heren, schizophrenia has an early onset [about 4% of schizophrenia arise before the age of 15, and about 1% before the age of 10].  A 78-year -old resident does not become schizophrenic all of a sudden because he or she is agitated. “I can say that I have not seen many deficiencies given to Rhode Island nursing homes for overusing anti-psychotic medications,” she says, because of the efforts of  Health Care Centrics, Rhode Island’s Quality Assurance organization, that has provided in-depth staff training on the use of these drugs. The surveyors from the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDoH) are very quick to cite facilities for not following guidelines in the inappropriate use of these drugs.

Heren says that there have been cases where RIDOH has rescinded a deficiency based on the input received by the survey team during the Informal Dispute Resolution process. “There are some facilities that are continually receiving deficiencies and that families should be able to see why a deficiency was given and a facilities response as to why it was considered unfair,” she says.

CMS Actions promote quality of care

RI Department of Health

“At the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDoH), one of our major focus areas is monitoring and ensuring that nursing homes and other healthcare facilities provide the highest quality of care and services in a clean and safe environment, says Joseph Wendelken, RIDoH’s Public Information Officer. 

“We will continue to do everything we can to protect patients and residents, which includes following any new CMS protocols and partnering with CMS on new initiatives,” Wendelken says. 

Senior Agenda Coalition of RI

Adds Maureen Maigret, Policy Advisor for the Senior Agenda Coalition of RI, “Rhode Island nursing homes have generally provided good quality of care over the years,” acknowledging that improvements can always be made. “Both of these changes are intended to promote better quality care,” she says. “If people are erroneously coded as having schizophrenia, they may be subject to poorer care and harmed by being prescribed inappropriate medication. Posting inspection citations under dispute on Nursing Home Compare with a notation they are under dispute is important in that resolution of the dispute could take 60 days or longer and in the meantime the public remains unaware of what could be significant deficiencies which could impact their decisions,” states Maigret says.

The QSO memo — Updates to the Nursing Home Care Compare website and Five-Star Quality Rating System: Adjusting Quality Measure Ratings Based on Erroneous Schizophrenia Coding, and Posting Citations Under Dispute — is available here for review:

https://www.cms.gov/medicare/provider-enrollment-and-certification/surveycertificationgeninfo/policy-and-memos-states/updates-nursing-home-care-compare-website-and-five-star-quality-rating-system-adjusting-quality

Watching over Nursing Homes once again – time for mandated Boosters

Published on December 20, 2021 in RINewsToday

Colder weather is keeping people more indoors now, and Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas gatherings are drawing people together in groups, small and large. Like other states across the country, Rhode Island is seeing a growing transmission of the COVID-19 Delta, and now Omicron variants. Some national sources say Rhode Island’s case rate is the highest.

According to WPRI’s COVID-19 tracking page, 73.7% of Rhode Island’s population, totaling 1,097,379 are fully vaccinated, 9.2 % are partially vaccinated, and 17 % have received no vaccination at all. “But some back-of-the-envelope math based on the state’s tally of daily doses shows nearly 251,000 people have received booster shots or third doses. And earlier this week, RI Gov. McKee publicly said the number is closer to 260,000 people,” says WPRI.

Taking a Snapshot of Vaccination Rates in Rhode Island’s Facilities

Just days ago, AARP Rhode Island called for increased boosters in the state’s nursing homes after releasing its new analysis of the latest data from AARP’s Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard.  The Dashboard revealed that only 54% of nursing home residents and 19% of staff in 79 Rhode Island nursing homes have received a COVID- 19 booster.

“With holiday gatherings on the horizon, these numbers are a cause for concern for state policy makers, as more than a year and a half into the pandemic, rates of COVID-19 cases in nursing homes are rising again nationally, along with increased community spread,” says AARP Rhode Island. While case rates declined slightly compared to the same time period last month, in AARP’s dashboard, looking week to week, the number of cases increased each week during the four weeks ending November 2, notes the state’s largest aging advocacy group serving more than 132,000 members aged 50 and older.

The Rhode Island-specific AARP Nursing Home Database says that resident cases grew from a rate of 0.64 per 100 residents in mid-October to 1.19 in mid-November. Staff cases decreased slightly from a rate of 0.96 to 0.82 during this same time period. Nursing home resident deaths from coronavirus rose slightly from a rate of 0.06 in mid-October to 0.11 in mid-November.

“COVID-19 continues to infiltrate America’s nursing homes with more than 1,500 new nursing home resident deaths nationally for the third consecutive month,” said AARP’s Rhode Island State Director Catherine Taylor. “Increasing vaccination rates—including boosters — among nursing home residents and staff is key to protecting our loved ones and getting the pandemic under control,” she says.

“AARP calls on nursing homes, state and federal authorities, and others to increase access to and receipt of COVID-19 boosters for both nursing home staff and residents,” Taylor added.

“As new variants emerge and vaccine immunity wanes, the low number of residents and staff who have received a booster creates an unacceptable level of risk since the disease spreads so easily in these environments,” says Tayler, urging Gov. Dan McKee “to prioritize the state’s most vulnerable population and take immediate action to addresses the relatively low percentage of nursing home residents and staff who have not received COVID-19 booster shots.”

According to AARP Rhode Island, while the percentage of residents and staff who have received boosters remain low, rates of those fully vaccinated—those who have received two COVID-19 shots—continue to slowly rise as of November 21. In Rhode Island, 99.10% of nursing home staff are fully vaccinated (the highest rate of any state in the nation) and 94.10% of nursing home residents.

The number of Rhode Island facilities reporting a shortage of nurses or aides rose sharply from 34.7% to 41.7% in the four weeks ending November 21, says the advocacy group. 

Rhode Island’s high vaccination rates can be tied to Rhode Island mandating all healthcare workers be vaccinated by Oct. 1, 2021, say John E. Gage, President and CEO of the Rhode Island Health Care Association. When the 30 day-compliance period ended, those who were unvaccinated were banned from entering the state’s healthcare facilities, he says, noting that termination resulted from failure to follow a reasonable policy set forth by their employer in compliance with Health Department’s emergency order. 

Yet, in at least one large nursing home facility, RINewsToday has learned, staff who refused to be vaccinated were either moved to non-patient-facing positions, or already worked in those positions, and allowed to keep working. An administrator said they are still working on encouraging 100% vaccination. Residents also have the right to refuse vaccination, and masks are required for patients outside of their rooms.

Families visiting had been restricted to the lobby, and at one time received a test in the parking lot prior to being able to enter. Today they are still screened for temperature, and they must wear a mask and complete a health symptom questionnaire. After a federal regulation went into effect several weeks ago easing access for families to visit, the screening also eased up and now tests are not required.

Any patient who is positive for COVID is moved to a quarantine area until fully recovered, and regular testing for patients and staff continues.

Some nursing homes are allowing families to take their loved one’s home for a Christmas holiday and then return after being with outside family and friends.

Gage notes that Rhode Island is ranked at No. 11 of states at a booster rate among residents of 54.1% compared to a national average of 38.4%.  Staff are boosted at 19.1% (#16) compared to a national average of 15.0%.  “Remember, individuals are not eligible for a booster until six months after their second dose of the vaccine series.  This will preclude some residents and staff, he says, stressing more credit should be given to the state’s health care facilities having the highest vaccine rates among staff and the second highest vaccination rate among residents.

According to Gage, the data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Nov. 28, 2021 showed 99.38% of all workers in Rhode Island facilities are vaccinated – the highest (#1) vaccination rate for nursing homes in the country. Residents in Rhode Island nursing homes are 95.02% vaccinated – the second highest rate in the country.

To Booster or Not Booster, that is the Question

“With vaccines mandated in healthcare facilities and proof of vaccination being required to enter public places under the new Executive Order, it seems this would be a reasonable requirement for visitors to nursing homes,” says Gage, noting that this is not allowed according to the most recent guidance issued by the Centers for Med Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

As to mandating booster shots for nursing facility staff, however, Gage warns, “staffing is at a crisis level already. We cannot afford to lose more staff with another mandate,” he says.

“The first rounds of vaccines were given most commonly by third-party sources such as CVS medical staff who came into the homes, similar as they do every year for flu shots”, said one nursing home administrator to RINewsToday – “For the boosters, we did them using our own staff, and ordering our supply from the RI Department of Health.”  Boosters were advised to be given 4-5 months from original vaccination completion – yet in the nursing homes most didn’t get them until 8 to 9 months – as late as the end of October.

However, Joseph Wendelken, Rhode Island’s Department of Health’s Public Information Officer, says that CVS and Walgreens are working to make COVID-19 vaccine booster doses available to all nursing facilities,. “If any facility is looking for additional support getting residents and workers vaccinated, we can provide that support,” he says.

Wendelken notes that there is a requirement for nursing home workers to complete a primary COVID-19 vaccine series, but there is no [federal or state] requirement for booster doses. “The data are becoming clearer and clearer that – especially with the Omicron variant – booster doses are absolutely critical,” says Wendelken.

“Residents [of nursing homes and assisted living facilities] were among the first to get vaccinated so that means their immunity has waned and boosters are needed to avert significant outbreaks and deaths,” says  Maureen Maigret, former director of the R.I. Department of Elderly Affairs and chair of the Aging in Community Subcommittee of the Long Term Care Coordinating Council. “It is critical that booster shots are offered to all nursing home and assisted living residents especially now that visitation has opened up and visitors do not have to show proof of vaccination,” she says.

As of December 15th, the RI Department of Health Department shows at least 114 new cases in nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the past seven days, says Maigret. “We must  remember that over 1,700 residents died as a result of COVID in these facilities and providing booster shots is our best defense against more fatalities for this vulnerable population.”  

Even though it is not a federal policy, a growing number of state officials across the country are calling for the definition for being fully vaccinated to now include the booster shot. With Rhode Island seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases and an increase in hospitalizations due to Delta and Omicron variants spreading throughout the state, many (including this writer) express it’s time for Governor Dan McKee to now mandate booster shots for nursing facility staff.  More important, it must become a priority for the Rhode Island Health Department to make sure that every consenting nursing facility resident receives a booster, too.

President Biden is set to address the country on Tuesday, at a time to be announced. There is speculation whether the term “fully vaccinated” will now include not just the two original vaccinations but the booster as well.

The AARP Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard analyzes federally reported data in four-week periods going back to June 1, 2020. Using this data, the AARP Public Policy Institute, in collaboration with the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Ohio, created the dashboard to provide snapshots of the virus’ infiltration into nursing homes and impact on nursing home residents and staff, with the goal of identifying specific areas of concern at the national and state levels in a timely manner.

The full Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard is available at  www.aarp.org/nursinghomedashboard. For more information on how coronavirus is impacting nursing homes and AARP’s advocacy on this issue, visit www.aarp.org/nursinghomes. Medicare.gov’s Care Compare website now offers information about vaccination rates within nursing homes and how they compare to state and national averages.

RI Nursing Homes with new cases (more than 5) in the past 14 days:

Berkshire Place, Providence – 10 to 15

Jeanne Juga Residence, Pawtucket – 5 to 9

Oak Hill Health Center, Pawtucket – 20 to 24

Pawtucket Falls Healthcare, Pawtucket – 10 to 14

Summit Commons, Providence – 5 to 9

West View Nursing, West Warwick – 10 to 14

The full Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard is available at  www.aarp.org/nursinghomedashboard. For more information on how coronavirus is impacting nursing homes and AARP’s advocacy on this issue, visit www.aarp.org/nursinghomes. Medicare.gov’s Care Compare website now offers information about vaccination rates within nursing homes and how they compare to state and national averages.