Government memorandum crushes Cuomo’s rescue in nursing home scandal

Gue. Cuomo has repeatedly defended its administration’s directive to nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients as a product of federal “guidance” – even though one of those government documents states that infected seniors ” Facilities “.

Conversely, since the Health Department reassigned, the March 25 memo left little room to prevent “medically stable” patients from being transferred from hospitals to nursing homes.

“During this global health emergency, all NHs must follow up with the early receipt of residents returning from hospitals to NH,” state eyewitnesses said.

And if there was any doubt as to what this meant, the following sentence was outlined: “No resident was denied re-entry or entry into NH solely on the basis of confirmation or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19 Will go. “

But on March 13, the US Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services – which the Department of Health cited as justification for its order – included a question-and-answer question on a very subject.

“When should the nursing home accept a resident who was diagnosed with COVID-19 from the hospital?” This is called

Cuomo front cover

“A nursing home may accept a resident diagnosed with COVID-19 and still under transmission-based precautions for COVID-19 as long as the facility can follow CDC guidance for transmission-based precautions. If the nursing home cannot, it should wait until these precautions are stopped. “

The DOH directive – which noted the “urgent need to expand hospital capacity” – came under immediate fire from three health care industry groups: AMDA-The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Medicine, American Health Care Association and National Center for Assistance. In a March 29 statement, the organizations said they were “deeply concerned” with the underlined portion of the order.

“This is a short-term and short-sighted solution that will only increase growth in COVID-19 patients who require hospital care,” he said.

A former federal health and human services officer also told The Post that it was a potential recipe for disaster.

“[Cuomo] The need for this blanket and some nursing homes are not designed to cater to these patients and may lead to cross-contamination, ”the former official said.

And on Thursday, a draft report from the Empire Center for Public Policy tied up “several hundred and possibly more than 1,000” nursing homes, according to a March 25 directive, stating that “one in six of 5,780 nursing homes Is associated with more than ”statewide in late March and early May.

The day before, Cuomo defended the policy, saying “my health experts believe it was not wrong” and if they did, “I would sue the federal government for malpractice.”

He stood by the policy again on Friday, but at no point was it pre-emptive why he saved it under fire on May 10 and instead ordered that anyone be admitted to a nursing home and first of the coronovirus To be tested negative.

Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, who issued the directive on March 25, cited the March 13 Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidance during Friday’s news conference.

He inexplicably quoted a part that states, “Nursing homes should accept anyone they would normally accept for their convenience, including individuals from hospitals where COV-ID-19 A case of “was present.” Zucker referred to the part, which states that nursing homes can “accept infected patients”, noting that the need to follow “transmission-based precautions” was “very important.”

Zucker further noted a March 23 guide from the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying “hospitals need to follow COVID-19 patients’ ability to control recommendations for infection prevention and care of COVID Should go with the convenience of. 19 patients. “

“Primarily patients will be placed in a facility that can take care of COVID-19 cases,” he said.

Zakar noted that when he issued his order, the state was “running out of ICU space” because there were “twice as many” in the hospital.

“With the facts that we had at the time, it was the right decision in that time,” he said.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*