Connecticut is asking nursing properties to just accept COVID-19-positive sufferers discharged from hospitals because the state seems to alleviate the burden on the healthcare system through the newest wave of the pandemic.
New steerage from the Connecticut Division of Public Well being says post-acute care amenities, a class which incorporates nursing properties, ought to soak up sufferers discharged from a hospital ‘no matter COVID-19 standing,’ based on a memo dated Jan. 6.
This comes as greater than 80 p.c of nursing properties in Connecticut are reporting constructive instances of COVID-19 amongst residents or employees, based on The Connecticut Mirror. And whereas Connecticut has totally vaccinated greater than 92 p.c of residents aged 65 to 74 and 86.9 p.c of these 75 or older, based on knowledge from the state well being division, early research have proven that the mutated omicron variant evades the immunity granted by vaccines greater than previous strains of the virus.
The brand new steerage ought to nonetheless give the state’s 209 nursing properties sufficient wiggle room to refuse sufferers if they cannot take care of them, mentioned Matthew Barrett, the president and CEO of the Connecticut Affiliation of Well being Care Services.
“The steerage that got here out at present, we don’t interpret it initially as in any means undermining a nursing dwelling’s very applicable authority and talent to refuse a hospital admission, if the nursing dwelling believes it’s unable to satisfy the care wants of the resident as a result of staffing points,” he advised the Mirror. “And staffing points are current all throughout the state and particularly in Connecticut nursing properties.”
A spokesperson for Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont mentioned if a nursing dwelling refuses a affected person, the hospital is chargeable for discovering one other place for the individual, based on the CT Mirror.
Steerage from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) recommends that states contemplating “reduction healthcare” amenities should make sure that transferring sufferers will not compromise these amenities’ skill to fight the unfold of the virus internally.
Moreover, the amenities will need to have an “sufficient variety of educated healthcare professionals, ample house to accommodate extra sufferers, applicable PPE, and different tools and provides to take care of these sufferers,” based on the CDC steerage.
The information comes as 82 p.c of Connecticut’s inpatient hospital beds, together with 81 p.c of its intensive care unit beds, had been occupied as of final week, per knowledge from Johns Hopkins College.
