Covid Cases and Senior Living

We all know that the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems are at the greatest risk of contracting Covid 19. Are we doing enough to keep residents of senior living communities safe from becoming a statistic? Let us look at how Covid can spread so easily in senior living facilities.

• A resident goes to the emergency room for some health event completely unrelated to Covid 19.
• If the hospital determines the patient should be admitted they are put on the Covid floor due to their age. The patient could have arrived Covid free but is now at risk of contracting the virus just being in the hospital.
• If the patient spends three nights in the hospital, and manages to stave off the virus, they then likely discharge to a skilled nursing facility for rehab. Again, in an environment where Covid could easily spread.
• When the patient is ready to go back to their senior living community, they are tested for Covid 19. The results can take several days to come back thus a negative result means that on the day the test was administered the patient did not have the virus.

There is an easy solution to keep Covid out of senior living communities. Everyone needs to have access to the Rapid Covid Tests. Unfortunately, only hospitals seem to have access to such tests. It cannot be due to cost because now Medicare pays for Covid testing. Just imagine, on the day an elderly patient is ready to leave rehab the staff administers a test, and just like when you are tested for Strep or the Flu, in a few short minutes you have the results! Let us be part of the solution, reaching out to city, county and state officials on behalf of facilities caring for older adults, pushing for Covid rapid result testing such as only hospitals are able to administer at the moment.

As of June 7, 2020, according to WFAA there have been over 1000 cases of Covid resulting in 150 deaths in long term care facilities. Here are the four largest counties; for a complete listing, including each facility, visit WFAA.com.

Dallas: 532 cases, 414 residents, 118 staff, 72 deaths.

Tarrant: 540 cases, 414 residents, 126 staff, 38 deaths. One Arlington Memory Care Community reported 44 new cases as of June 7th, 30 residents, and 14 staff members.

Denton: 109 cases, 5 deaths. Sadly 104 of the total number of Covid reported cases in Denton County are all at the Denton State Supported Living Center. The facility offers long term care for people with intellectual, and developmental disabilities. Caring for people, especially adults with these types of disabilities is incredibly difficult at times. Imagine reasoning with a toddler in an adult sized body. From my viewpoint, I can understand how easily Covid could spread in an environment where enforcing compliance is a delicate and challenging task. Instead of pointing the finger of blame, can we show empathy for what is most assuredly an impossible situation?

Collin: 17 deaths. All residents of two nursing homes or two memory care communities.