Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse and Negligence

Over the past month, the novel coronavirus has quickly spread across the United States, infecting hundreds of thousands. The current administration estimates that tens of thousands of people will die as a result of COVID-19. While the virus does not seriously jeopardize the health of everyone infected, older Americans, as well as those with pre-existing health conditions, are among the most at-risk populations of experiencing serious health complications. Not surprisingly, Virginia nursing home residents are especially at risk.

According to a recent news report, a total of 16 residents of a Virginia long-term care facility have now died from the coronavirus. It appears that all those who died caught the virus from the facility, The Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in suburban Richmond. This count includes the deaths of five residents who had been sick with the virus for weeks.

In all, over 90 residents have tested positive since mid-March, when the facility began testing residents and staff. This figure represents two-thirds of the entire resident population. More than half of those who tested positive did not show any symptoms of the virus.

Earlier this year, the coronavirus pandemic took the country by storm, quickly spreading from what was just a few select cities to every state in the nation. One of the first clusters of COVID-19 cases was in a Washington state nursing home, where at least 37 residents died as a result of the virus. Indeed, among those most at risk for developing serious and potentially fatal coronavirus symptoms are those living in Virginia nursing homes. Currently, several states have banned friends and family members from visiting loved ones in nursing homes in an attempt to stop – or at least – slow the spread of COVID-19.

However, at a time when one may think that nursing home regulations would be getting stricter, the opposite seems to be the case. According to a recent news report by the New York Times, the current administration has been working to relax the regulations that control the country’s nursing homes. Shockingly, this even includes measures designed to combat the spread of deadly infections between residents.

Last July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a plan that would, among other things, relieve nursing homes from complying with an Obama-era rule requiring facilities to employ at least one specialist with knowledge of preventing infections. Under the proposed rule, facilities would no longer need even a part-time infection disease specialist, and instead would require such a specialist to spend “sufficient time at the facility.”