Coronavirus Nursing Home Death Disproportionately High, Suggest New Data

According to recent government data, nursing home residents make up about one in ten COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Even more tragically, the data show nursing home residents make up around one-quarter of COVID-19 deaths.

This high proportion of COVID-19 cases in nursing homes, as well as the high proportion of COVID-19 nursing home deaths exists even though there is a relatively small number of Americans living in nursing homes as opposed to other living situations. Experts have begun to examine why COVID-19 levels are so elevated in nursing homes, citing the close quarters, shared spaces, travel by staff between multiple facilities, and the reality that older people tend to be more at risk for COVID-19 than younger people. 

According to AOL, there have been a total of 179,000 suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases in nursing homes around the country, and 29,497 COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes. These numbers were calculated from around 95 percent of the United States’ 15,000 nursing homes.

AOL elaborates on the significance of these news statistics, noting that only around 1.4 million Americans live in nursing homes, yet they are suffering a disproportionately large number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Of around 15,000 nursing homes in the United States, over half of them have experienced confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases. Around 21 percent of the 15,000 facilities have reported COVID-19 deaths. 

Across all 50 states, around 26.7 percent of COVID-19 deaths reportedly occurred in nursing homes. However, in around 30 states, the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes was proportionately higher. For example, Massachusetts and Connecticut were among the states who experienced a high number of COVID-19 deaths, over one third of which occurred in nursing homes. 

Massachusetts experienced the highest proportion of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, with COVID-19 deaths reported in 247 of the state’s 376 nursing homes. This means that around 66 percent of nursing homes in Massachusetts experienced a COVID-19 death.

New Jersey reportedly had the highest proportion of nursing homes with COVID-19 cases. In New Jersey, around 299 of 363 nursing homes reported suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases, meaning that close to 82 percent of the state’s nursing homes reported COVID-19 cases.

Have Facilities Gotten Support in Preventing COVID-19?

AOL goes on to note that some lawmakers have blamed these high numbers of COVID-19 nursing home deaths and cases on a failure of government agencies to provide sufficient equipment to nursing homes. Healthcare workers in nursing homes and the industry in general have also requested more support from the federal government, speaking to the desperate need for protective gear, and asking for regular testing of both staff and residents to keep their communities safe.

Mary Parkinson, head of the American Health Care Association spoke to this need for more support, saying “It’s time that America rally around our nation’s seniors and caregivers just as they did with hospitals,” according to AOL.

The federal government has reportedly put several standards for testing and inspection control in place, but few states have succeeded in meeting this, says AP. However, some lawmakers worry that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the federal government are not doing enough to help nursing homes achieve these goals and protect residents and staff.

James Clyburn, a Democratic Representative from South Dakota who served as Chairman for a House COVID-19 panel, stated that he felt that that “lax oversight by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the federal government’s failure to provide testing supplies and personal protective equipment to nursing homes and long-term care facilities may have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus,” and elevated nursing home deaths. He went on to admonish the CMS’s alleged strategy of deferring to state and local government in responding to the coronavirus pandemic despite the centers’ “broad legal authority,” quotes AOL.

In contrast, CMS chief Seema Verma had called this blame “absolutely ridiculous,” and instead, gestured towards the infection control problems at nursing homes to explain higher than normal rates of nursing home COVID-19 cases and nursing home deaths. This sentiment was echoed by other parts of the Trump Administration, says AP.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.