Postacute Care Facilities Unprepared for COVID-19

Lauren Jett
Person putting hand on other person's arm Image by Gundula Vogel from Pixabay 

Many COVID-19 patients will require additional care as they recover and transition out of the hospital. Currently, providers of postacute care lack the resources as well as capacity to care safely for this coming surge of new patients.

In JAMA, professor of health care policy David C. Grabowski, PhD, and assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Karen E. Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH, make several recommendations on how postacute care providers and policy makers can prepare for the coming influx of COVID-19 patients.

Grabowski and Maddox suggest that all patients should be tested for COVID-19 before being transferred to a postacute care facility regardless of whether they were treated for the virus while in the hospital. Anyone infected should not be discharged to a mainstream postacute setting unless that provider has the capability to care safely for them. Specialized postacute care environments should be established to treat recovering COVID-19 patients similar to what Massachusetts is currently doing. Other states such as New York and New Jersey which have mandated that skilled nursing facilities accept COVID-19 patients puts other residents and staff at risk.

Postacute care settings such as skilled nursing facilities are at a high risk for COVID-19 outbreaks. The Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington has lost approximately one-quarter of its residents to the pandemic.

Given the huge surge of patients that will need to be discharged, some patients will need to be treated, when possible, in their homes to further COVID-19 isolation practices. Telehealth will be an excellent resource for patients being treated in their homes.

During these times, it will be important for postacute care organizations to keep their staff educated on proper hygiene and procedures and to provide them with regular COVID-19 testing. Paid sick leave should be given to all postacute care staff to encourage them to stay home if they become sick. Medicare rates for treating COVID-19 patients should be enhanced, incentivizing postacute care organizations and their personnel to treat these patients.

This piece received media coverage from a number of sources including Kaiser Health News, NBC News, the Philadelphia Inquirer and McKnight’s Senior Living.