The federal government is seeking help because of the lack of protective equipment in nursing homes

Throughout the country, nursing homes seeking to protect their inhabitants from coronaviruses are waiting for federally promised mask, eyewear, and gown boxes. But even when a package arrives, it is often disappointing.

Some include flimsy surgical masks or fabric face covers that are clearly not intended for medical use. Others are missing items or far less than the week’s worth of protective equipment that the government promised to ship. Instead of a proper medical gown, many packages include a large blue plastic poncho.

“It’s like putting a trash bag,” said Pamela Black, the administrator of the Enterprise Estates Nursing Center in Enterprise, Kansas. “There is no real place where your hands come out.”

Nursing Homes continue to be the epicenter of pandemics, so interviews with managers and federal data show whether the federal government has all the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent the spread of the virus. I have not confirmed.

Despite President Donald Trump’s pledge to “deploy all the resources and power we have” to protect older Americans on April 30, five minutes of the country’s retirement home More than 1,15,000 of them, 3,213, were low in the last two weeks of May, according to federal records, than a week’s supply of masks, gowns, gloves, eye protection, or hand sanitizers. Also. Of these, 946 reported at least one confirmed COVID infection since the beginning of the pandemic.

“The federal government’s failure to nationalize and manage its supply chain contributed to the deaths of nursing homes,” said a health care system in the Roman Catholic Parish in New York. Scott LaRue is President of ArchCare. Nursing home.

Widespread equipment shortages continue in some areas as the virus is fatally spread through nursing homes and other nursing homes. is more than 217,000 short-term and long-term residents of nursing homes Infected with COVID-19, 43,000 people have died.

Some homes have not yet received First of two batches of feeding The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will ship in May. Instead, some people only got the cloth masks they had outsourced through a contract with the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Hanes brandApparel company known for underwear. HHS Web page Masks are not intended to look after contagious patients, they say, and can be given to workers or workers when they leave the room for commuting.

At some point during the last two weeks of May, 653 trained nursing homes had more than one type of protective gear as homes continued to seek supplies in chaotic markets where prices were rising and scarcity continued. Notified the government that it was completely exhausted. According to records released last week by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS.

“The federal government needs to take a step forward,” says Loris Methanka, executive director of National Consumer Voices for Quality Long Term Care, a Washington, DC-based advocacy group. Pandemics, and these facilities still don’t have enough PPE to protect themselves and their residents? “

“Relentless commitment”

April, playing cards Pledged His administration “will never sway its relentless commitment to older Americans.” However, shipping FEMA masks, gloves, gowns and eye protection Modest goals: “It acts as a bridge between other PPE cargo.”

The FEMA, in a written comment, defended the quality of the poncho gown, but said the contractor had created a “short explanation video about the proper use of the gown” and shared it with the house due to complaints. .. As of June 4, FEMA officials said the agency had shipped packages to 11,287 nursing homes “from the earliest possible day in the climate of COVID-19’s global supply chain.”

However, 67 of the 147 nursing homes of the Good Samaritan have not received FEMA shipments. This includes homes in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, fighting the biggest outbreaks. Greeley, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska, “has not received cargo at six or seven hotspots,” he said, according to Nate Schema, vice president of the Evangelical Lutheran Society.

He also tends to be limited to one size of material arriving, and in partnership with a large hospital and doctor system, Sanford Health, “quality is not what we were receiving. It was quite different.”

Although society is well equipped, small nursing homegroups and independent homes are still considered the best way to filter out small particles of the virus, preventing both nursing home employees and residents from getting infected. I have a hard time getting an N95 mask.

According to CMS records, there are 711 nursing homes reported to be deficient in N95 masks, with 1,963 worth less than a week. However, FEMA does not ship N95 masks and nursing homes are having trouble getting them from other sources. Instead, it sends surgical masks, but more than 1,000 homes supply them in less than a week.

Messiah Lifeways, located in Messiah Village, Mechanicsburg, PA, received a FEMA shipment this week with a face shield and gloves, but with a surgical mask for only three days and a lack of sleeves, “a very low quality “There were only gowns,” says Katie Andreano. Messiah communications expert.

Only two of ArchCare’s five nursing homes have received FEMA shipments, even though they are based in New York City, the country’s largest outbreak. The furnishings for these two homes were less than a week old. LaRue tried to source the equipment from abroad, but all potential suppliers turned out to be fraud. He said ArchCare had to rely on sporadic supplies from state and city emergency management offices.

“Since we are sitting here today, I haven’t been able to get a supply of N95 masks for more than a few days and I’m still struggling with some gowns,” LaRue said. “It doesn’t mean you sleep at night because you don’t know when the next delivery will come.”

“It doesn’t work”

In addition to supply, the regime has $5 billion From a $175 billion Provider Relief Fund allocated by Congress to a nursing home. The number of hospitals is increasing. Managers said the money does not solve a broken private supply chain where the availability of PPE is uneven and the equipment is very overpriced.

Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of Leading Age, an association of non-profit nursing homes and other senior services organizations, said: ..

HHS cross masks require special attention to the managers of nursing homes. According to Sondranauder, President and CEO of St. Paul Elder Services in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, the masks can be washed up to 15 times.

“I don’t know how many times each mask has been cleaned and how I can track it,” she said. The instructions also said masks should not be washed with disinfectants, bleaches or chemicals, that’s how the nursing home said their nursing home cleans their laundry.

Mr. Noder said he had washed about 100 masks and shrunk. “I don’t want to put something that hasn’t been washed on someone’s face, because the washed one is small,” she said. “All my colleagues [at other nursing homes] I received the same thing and was confused by that, “How do you use these?”

KHN Senior Correspondent Christina Jewett contributed to this report.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorial independent program of Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation It has nothing to do with Kaiser Permanente.