The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 1 million and 3 million serious infections occur in nursing homes, long-term care or assisted living facilities in America every year. Those infections lead to around 380,000 deaths.

With the number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus (Covid-19) rising rapidly throughout the state, infection controls are not only essential – they can be critical to life.

Across the state, Medicare Nursing Home Compare data shows that infection control is lacking in many nursing home and care facilities. In recent inspections, officials recorded a significant number of citations for failure to meet federal standards.

Some of those citations were in respect of the very things everyone needs to be doing right now to prevent Covid-19 from spreading even faster. Basic measures such as staff failing to wash their hands – even when changing dressings – or failing to use the correct protective equipment were observed. Some facilities also failed to implement up-to-date mandatory prevention and control programs. According to Medicare, a number of nursing homes were found to operate below an acceptable standard of care.

The facts are stark: older people are more likely to die from Coronavirus. One of the most fundamental ways to protect everyone is to wash your hands. Unchecked, infectious diseases can rampage through care homes. The residents are often far more vulnerable than the rest of the population and lack of infection control can be deadly.

If you have a loved one currently residing in a nursing facility, and you have worries about infection control and especially Coronavirus, raise your concerns quickly and through the appropriate channels.

Maybe someone you care about has already contracted an infection in a nursing home? If that’s the case, get in touch. We can advise you on any next steps and offer remote meetings and video calls.

These are unprecedented times. We need to be looking out for each other, and taking care of the most vulnerable people in our community more than ever. We can make sure we stay together, by keeping apart with social distancing. We all need to keep on washing our hands, but never of each other.