The impact of COVID on nursing homes

The impact of COVID on nursing home facilities has been extreme, ranging from sick residents to understaffed facilities to hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Throughout the past year of the pandemic, elderly Americans (65 years or older) have been at a higher risk of COVID-19 complications. In addition to being older and therefore having a weaker immune system, many senior citizens have health conditions which put them at an even higher risk. Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune conditions, and other problems can all increase a person’s risk for COVID-19 complications.

Due to these factors, most nursing home residents are at a higher risk for developing life threatening COVID-19 infections. As a result, nursing homes adopted novel safety measures to protect their residents and staff members during the pandemic.

Despite these measures, tens of thousands of nursing home residents have already died throughout the past year. Even with new vaccines being made available to at-risk patients, the impact of COVID on nursing home facilities runs deeper than expected.

Nursing home COVID impact studies

The United States has reported more than 99 million coronavirus cases to the World Health Organization (WHO) and more than one million deaths as of December 23, 2022. The number of nursing home coronavirus cases continues to be a big concern.

Nearly one-third of all coronavirus deaths in the United States are linked to nursing homes, according to analysis by the New York Times. Nursing homes were hit especially hard earlier on in the pandemic, though they now make up only 4% of COVID-19 cases. (However, nursing homes have since seen further spikes in cases.)

Early COVID nursing home death numbers were sometimes underreported or otherwise obscured from certain states.

Some states have even higher rates of death in nursing homes. In New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, long term care COVID-19 deaths reportedly comprised more than 70% of the states’ combined deaths as of Nov. 2020, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Other states such as Minnesota have consistently reported a high share of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, the nonprofit says.

“The disproportionate share of deaths among [assisted living facility] residents underscores the need for ongoing surveillance of nationwide COVID-19 data and more robust infection prevention and control activities to protect this population,” a Nov. 2020 CDC report concludes.

Nursing home neglect: A hidden pandemic threat

Unfortunately, nursing home residents may be at risk for further harm than just the virus itself due to neglect by their caregivers, potentially exacerbated by the pandemic.

The global pandemic has significantly challenged long term care facilities and their ability to provide adequate staffing, according to research published by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Between new measures to prevent infection, caring for sick residents, and helping to keep staff members healthy, these facilities may be struggling with understaffing during the pandemic.

As a result of understaffing, care facility residents may not receive the care they deserve. With staff members focusing on immediate, life threatening concerns, otherwise healthy residents may find their needs slipping through the cracks. This can lead to injuries, illness, and even death.

If a resident is not attended to and moved regularly, they may develop bedsores which can become infected. Failure to address hygiene can result in similar infections of the skin and urinary tract. Should a resident be denied mobility assistance, they may fall and break bones in an attempt to attend to their own needs. Any of these situations could lead to life threatening problems for nursing home residents.

These hypotheticals may be more common than previously believed, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis from Professor Stephen Kaye of the Institute on Health and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco, shows there have been around 15% more non-COVID deaths than expected during the pandemic.

“The healthcare system operates kind of on the edge, just on the margin, so that if there’s a crisis, we can’t cope,” Kaye told the Associated Press. “There are not enough people to look after the nursing home residents.”

Some families have called for action by lawmakers as their loved ones are injured and killed by nursing home neglect.

Lawmakers in New York plan on holding facilities accountable. Unfortunately, the opposite has occurred in some states. In May 2020, North Carolina passed a law which grants immunity for long term care facilities when faced with liability for deaths. Under this law, nursing homes cannot be hit with lawsuits over injuries or deaths occurring as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Long term care facilities have applauded the law as taking pressure off staff members who should be focused on keeping residents safe. However, according to bereaved family members, the law gives short staffed nursing homes a free pass to neglect their residents.

Filing a lawsuit over nursing home neglect

A growing number of people are coming forward with allegations of nursing home neglect after their loved ones died — and while this is an issue that far predated COVID, it has grown only worse since.

If you or a loved one was neglected by nursing home staff during the coronavirus pandemic, you may have legal options. A qualified attorney can evaluate your eligibility to file a lawsuit. Although legal action cannot heal injuries or bring back a deceased loved one, damages won in court can help compensate a family for medical expenses, wrongful death, and more.