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When it comes to PPE, Quad-CIty nursing homes are 'pushed to the back'

Quad City Times - 6/20/2020

Jun. 20--Chris Vetter, executive director of Ridgecrest Village, Davenport, says she's frustrated, sad and angry.

While hospitals and first-responders are getting back up to speed with adequate supplies of PPE, or personal protection equipment, licensed nursing homes in Iowa feel they've been "pushed to the back," she said Friday.

That's because for more than 100 days, residents of licensed care facilities have been under a lockdown in which residents have to stay in their rooms, all group dining and recreational activities have been canceled, and they not allowed to receive visitors.

Vetter well understands the need to protect vulnerable residents from the new coronavirus, but the restrictions are greatly impacting their quality of life, she said.

Vetter thought change was coming on June 4 when the state health department, in conjunction with the department of inspections and appeals, issued guidance to moving into Phases 2 and 3 of coronavirus protocol.

But the guidance has restrictions that most -- if not all -- nursing homes in the state cannot meet, Vetter said.

The main stickler is a requirement that, to move to Phase 2, staff members would have to wear a different surgical mask for every resident encounter. A staffer delivering dinner, for example, would have to take off and put on a different mask for each room.

Even if nursing homes could obtain that many masks -- which Vetter highly doubts -- they would not be able to afford them.

Vetter said she has talked to other nursing home administrators who agree with her, and, as a board member of LeadingAge Iowa, a statewide membership organization of nonprofit providers of aging services, she has heard similar comments.

And so, licensed nursing homes, their residents and families are stuck in the limbo of the lockdown.

"The perception is that everybody has everything they need (in regard to PPE) and the truth is that long-term care does not," she said.

She is hoping that in the coming days nursing homes -- and families of nursing home residents -- can convince state health officials to compromise. Perhaps the state could allow a different type of mask that could be reused, for example.

At present, Ridgecrest staff is doing what it can to keep residents engaged; there are one-on-one visits, hallway visits and video chats and phone calls with family, "but that's just not the same," she said.

"This is hard; this is hard stuff."

Recently FEMA, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sent PPE to all nursing homes in the country. The amount Ridgecrest received would have lasted only three to four days under the new guidance but, more importantly, the box the masks came in was stamped with the words "'not for medical use,' so we can't even use them," Vetter said.

Ridgecrest has about 65 residents in its licensed nursing home and has no cases of COVID-19, Vetter said.

Meanwhile, also on Friday, the National Center for Assisted Living, sent out a news release about a survey of its members showing that "more than half of assisted living communities (have) less than a two-week supply of specific PPE."

Assisted living facilities are different from licensed nursing homes in that the offer a different, less skilled, level of care.

"While more than 70 percent have asked for help from state and local health agencies, many are still forced to reuse PPE or rely on homemade supplies, the news release said.

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