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Nursing Home Care

L.A. Nursing Home ‘Dumped’ Residents to Bring in Lucrative COVID Patients, Authorities Say

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A nursing home accused of illegally “dumping” patients onto city streets and into ill-equipped homes in order to take in more lucrative COVID-19 patients will nearly double its nursing staff, allow increased oversight and pay $275,000 in penalties and costs to settle a lawsuit brought by the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

City Atty. Mike Feuer on Monday announced the legal agreement with the Lakeview Terrace skilled nursing facility, which he had accused of “sustained” and “intentional” misconduct in failing to adequately tend to some patients, while pushing others out of the 99-bed home.

The city alleged in its lawsuit that the facility west of downtown had an incentive to discharge long-term residents in order to make room for COVID-19 patients, who brought Lakeview Terrace much higher reimbursement payments from Medicare.

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Nursing Home Care

Many nursing home staff decline vaccine: frustrated families wait for news on visiting restrictions

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ARVADA, Colo. — It’s now been one year since Marie Nadeau has hugged, kissed or even held the hand of her 87-year-old mom.

“It’s extremely difficult,” Nadeau said. “I want to hold her, and she needs that, too.”

Although Nadeau’s mom, Fae, has now received both doses of the vaccine, residential care visits in Colorado are still limited, in Marie’s case, to visits through a window.

“We sit out in the cold when we do the window visits,” she said. “I don’t know why I can’t at least give her a hug.”

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment says part of the problem is that while the vast majority of elderly residents are getting vaccinated, only about 50% of residential care staff are choosing to get the shot, even though they’re all eligible.

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Nurse Stressed Out

New York Gov. Cuomo Accused of Undercounting Nursing Home Deaths in Wake of Report

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New York’s approach to counting nursing home deaths “totally masked the true death rate and the impact,” a health care policy expert said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration faced a barrage of criticism in the wake of a report from his own state attorney general claiming that the state had undercounted Covid-19 nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent.

The state’s public death toll for nursing homes does not include residents who died from the coronavirus after having been transferred to hospitals, only deaths that occurred at facilities. Attorney General Letitia James’ report examined 62 nursing homes — about 10 percent of the state’s total — and found that New York’s approach left a large number of hospital deaths out of the state’s official nursing home death toll.

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Covid Vaccine

Temple College Nursing Students Qualify To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine

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TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX) – In an agreement with the Bell County Public Health Department, Temple College has agreed to vaccinate nursing students and those volunteering to help administer vaccines at distribution centers.

Shelley Pearson with Temple College stresses that the list for volunteers at the vaccination hubs is entirely separate. Students who don’t volunteer will have to register with the county when more vaccine becomes available. In spite of the wait, Pearson says most students are anxious to get it done.

“They won’t receive any special treatment as far as going ahead or getting an appointment ahead of anybody else,” she said.

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CVS Pharmacy

CVS and Walgreens Under Fire For Slow Pace of Vaccination in Nursing Homes

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The effort to vaccinate some of the country’s most vulnerable residents against Covid-19 has been slowed by a federal program that sends retail pharmacists into nursing homes — accompanied by layers of bureaucracy and logistical snafus.

As of Thursday, more than 4.7 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid vaccines had been allocated to the federal pharmacy partnership, which has deputized pharmacy teams from Walgreens and CVS to vaccinate nursing home residents and workers. Since the program started in some states on Dec. 21, however, they have administered about one-quarter of the doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Across the country, some nursing home directors and health care officials say the partnership is actually hampering the vaccination process by imposing paperwork and cumbersome corporate policies on facilities that are thinly staffed and reeling from the devastating effects of coronavirus. They argue that nursing homes are unique medical facilities that would be better served by medical workers who already understand how they operate.
Senior Woman Praying

People Who Live In Nursing Homes Should Be Our Top Priority

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2021 is beginning a lot like how 2020 ended. Across the country, there is a steady increase in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. But there is another population that continues to show a record number of new cases: people who live in nursing homes.

A recent report by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), representing more than 14,000 nursing homes and assisted living communities across the country, showed nursing homes in the U.S. saw a continued record of new cases. This surpassed previous peaks since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) started tracking nursing home cases.

Specifically, the Midwest region saw a 275 percent increase in weekly Covid-19 cases in nursing homes between September and November 2020 due to the community spread among the general population.

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Doctor with vaccine

Michigan’s Last-Minute Switch Delayed COVID-19 Vaccines For Nursing Home Residents

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From Michigan’s biggest cities to its far rural areas, the state’s most vulnerable populations in nursing homes and long-term care facilities are finally starting to get COVID-19 vaccines — with officials hoping to see declines in the number of cases and deaths soon after both doses of the vaccines are administered to residents and staff.

For many, that day can’t come fast enough.

It brings the hope of hugging a parent, spouse, daughter, son or grandchild. It brings the anticipation of simply touching and holding a friend’s hand.

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Nursing Home Care

Assisted Living vs. Nursing Home: How to Choose the Right Level of Care

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Long-term care options for older adults are more varied than ever. But deciding which option is best for yourself or a loved one can be complicated.

A good place to begin is by deciding what level of care is right for your circumstances.

In this article, we’ll help shed light on the differences between nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and how to decide which one is the right choice.

What are the key differences between assisted living and nursing homes?

Assisted living is primarily a residential environment, while nursing homes — also called skilled nursing facilities — are considered medical environments.

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Medical Syringe & Vaccine

Vaccinations Have Begun At The Nursing Home Hit By The First U.S. Virus Cluster

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A nurse at the suburban Seattle nursing home that was ravaged by the first U.S. cluster of coronavirus cases sat down beside a visiting pharmacist on Monday, pulled up her blue shirtsleeve and received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine administered at the facility.

It was the beginning of what residents, families and employees hope will be a turning point in a pandemic that has killed tens of thousands of people in long-term care facilities. Vaccination teams from Walgreens and CVS were fanning out to facilities across the country on Monday, the start of a long, difficult campaign to vaccinate some of the country’s most vulnerable people.

At the facility near Seattle, the Life Care Center of Kirkland, which is connected with 46 coronavirus deaths, relatives of residents got a text message on Monday morning alerting them that vaccinations were beginning.

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Covid Vaccine

Marin Begins Coronavirus Vaccinations At Nursing Homes

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Maria Cortez waited in line early Thursday morning in the chilly air outside The Tamalpais senior living center in Greenbrae to become one of the first nursing home workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus in Marin.

Cortez, who is a nursing assistant at the center, has spent the past nine months wearing safety gear at work, getting frequent coronavirus tests and limiting her exposure to others. But despite all the precautions, she worries constantly about catching the virus and passing it on to the patients she works with, or to her three children at home.

“It’s really stressful,” she said. “I was so excited to get the vaccine.”

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