Nursing homes simply were not ready - Are we prepared to make them better?

Last week the Chicago Tribune reported 286 at nursing homes estimating 25% of our deaths in Illinois at the time. In the general population today it is an estimated 200,000 people worldwide. Considering our interventions out of 8 or 9 billion people those numbers are low compared to what it could've been.

 In the city of Joliet where I live, Symphony had 84 cases, and 24 deaths reported to lead the state. The caregivers at Symphony stated that they had the highest rate of testing in the state. They claim every nursing home needs testing to see what is going on. 

 The New York Times reported from the article 6,900 COVID 19 deaths were tied to nursing homes nationwide. About 20% of all the COVID 19 deaths reported. The State of Illinois has about 23% of those who died of COVID 19. The variance of numbers could be related to the testing done in the state compared to the national average. but a ballpark figure is relatively the same throughout the states. Any state with a higher population is going to have greater numbers. 

 Nursing homes provide a service in our country but they exist to be the lowest cost possible. The cost to the people in the nursing home usually dries up their life savings. If they live longer then projected their resources are less. Caregivers they use don't match the qualifications found in hospitals. Training and in-services do not match the same levels as hospitals. What are our expectations? We have the neediest with fewer resources. What did we expect as an outcome? I know our hospitals weren't ready and I know our nursing homes came into the virus war already stressed, overworked, and undertrained. 

 A reality check as we age our ability to fight diseases lessen. For many people who are older and healthy, 80-90’s it is the flu or other viruses that lead to pneumonia and death. A new virus-like COVID 19 which is a very contagious will, hit heavily in elderly care. 

What can we do?

• All of our retirement plans must invest in nursing home care. 
• We have to encourage qualifications with an incentive for education. I always knew to improve job performance as para pros in education, (they are good people) but to improve work there have to be incentives for education and qualifications. Many para pros in healthcare are there as aids. They are needed, but they need to be educated in qualified as professionals in their work. Nursing homes depend a lot on LPN’s. Their training is about a year unless it's been updated. But they need incentives for education for example level one two and three. Each with training to go with it. Their license may require education units to stay licensed. But these incentives have to be matched with pay. Not a lot of people are going to do this for nothing.
• Maybe it is time for nursing homes to employ physician assistants.
• Nursing homes can develop a mobile virtual assessment cart. Here the Dr. can see the patient and have the necessary vital signs the doctors looking for to help evaluate care. Working with the doctor's assistants, RNs, and staff. Puts the elderly patient in quarantine or even regularly in better contact with the physician. 
• We have on a personal level to expect as we get older will have more health issues. We are not all going to be working on a beach in the Caribbean. 
• I think about veterans in VA homes, many older people in nursing homes are lonely and forgotten. In what I hope is a historical event, not a regular one, we need to prepare virtual visits that we give regularly to the ones we love. Life isn't perfect but there's a lot of things we can do.