The Michigan Nursing Homes COVID-19 Preparedness Task Force released its recommendations to protect long-term care residents, a demographic disproportionately affected by COVID-19 mortalities.
“I want to thank the members of the task force for their collaboration and support for the state’s ongoing focus on protecting Michigan’s most vulnerable populations,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement.
“I will carefully review these recommendations and continue to work closely with the task force and our partners to strengthen policies to protect nursing home residents, staff, and their families.”
The 28 recommendations cover four strategy areas: placement, resource availability, staffing and quality of life.
The recommendations suggest continuing to use the regional hub program to house COVID-19 patients, but said the government should explore options for creating dedicated facilities for COVID-19 patients.
On July 31, Whitmer vetoed a bill that would have created isolated COVID-19 facilities.
Bill proponents argued that COVID-19 could spread quickly in nursing homes, and as The Center Square previously reported, as many as 41 residents died in homes in which COVID-19 positive patients weren’t isolated and staff violated other safety protocols, spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Other recommendations include improving personal protective equipment (PPE) distribution, securing funding for testing nursing home residents, and increasing safe visitation opportunities.
Many nursing homes weren’t a priority for safety gear after the initial March outbreak.
Another recommendation was to decrease reporting requirements on nursing homes but still keep the ability to quickly respond in an emergency so that staff could focus on facility safety.
The report recommended reporting frequency be contingent on the regional level of risk of the MI Safe Start plan, with lower-risk areas only having to report weekly while high-risk areas report cases and deaths daily.
The task force, appointed by Whitmer, looked at state and national data to give recommendations and was co-chaired by Roger Mali, II, owner and CEO of Mission Management Services, LLC in Troy, specializing in skilled nursing care.
“I am very pleased with the recommendations developed by the task force, and have full confidence that implementing these actions will improve the care, safety and wellness of Michigan’s most vulnerable population,” Mali said in a statement
Many of these recommendations are supported by a report from the Center for Health and Research Transformation (CHRT).
Using preliminary data, CHRT reported:
- No significant evidence of transmission of COVID-19 between patients admitted from hospitals to nursing home residents in hub facilities.
- Nursing home resident COVID-19 prevalence positively correlated with county COVID-19 prevalence rates for both hub and non-hub nursing homes.
- COVID-19 infection rates in nursing homes correlated with staff infection rates; this was consistent with community prevalence.
“We have taken great strides to protect families from the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes,” Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon said in a statement.
“Many of the recommendations from the Nursing Homes COVID-19 Preparedness Task Force and in the CHRT report represent policies already underway including strengthening the regional hub model, continued efforts to test residents and staff, and a $25 million grant program for nursing homes and other providers to purchase PPE.”
About 32 percent, or 2,088, of Michigan’s total COVID-19 deaths, were nursing home residents.
Even as the number of daily deaths has stayed mostly steady, the largest source of COVID-19 outbreaks has been in nursing homes.
The Department of Justice last week asked for additional data on several state’s COVID-19 nursing home policies, including Michigan’s, to see if it contributed to resident deaths.
A Whitmer spokesperson dismissed the inquiry as “nothing more than election year politics.”
