If you want to find out how many residents and staff members in a particular nursing home have tested positive for Covid-19, the information will be available later this week.
U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma announced Monday that the public will be able to access "user friendly" information through a link at the federal nursing home compare website.
While New York State has been releasing the number of deaths at the state’s more than 600 nursing homes, information on how many cases of the coronavirus have occurred at each facility has not been available to the general public.
Approximately 12,500 of the country’s 15,400 nursing homes have reported a total of 26,000 deaths and 60,000 cases of the virus, according to statistics nursing homes have been required to report since early May to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Verma said the number of deaths more than likely dates back to when the virus starting hitting the facilities prior to May, but probably does not include all of the deaths because her agency could not retroactively demand that information.
The federal government, she said, has required nursing homes to test every resident for the virus in order to create a baseline.
As for staff, she said, facilities must test workers weekly.
In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has required nursing homes to test workers twice a week.
“Early analysis shows that facilities with a one-star quality rating had more outbreaks than facilities with a five-star quality rating,” Verma said, in a conference call to announce the upcoming weekly release of the testing information.
But Verma pointed out some nursing homes that are exclusively serving as Covid-19 facilities will have higher positive testing levels, regardless of their ratings.
The administrator also announced that the government plans to take a harder stance against nursing homes that fail to pass inspections focusing on infection control guidelines.
“If they are repeat offenders, their fines will go up significantly,” she said.
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June 02, 2020 at 05:58AM
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Covid-19 positive results at nursing homes to be available later this week - Buffalo News
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