Finally!

Angie SzumlinskiNews

For the past several years, post-acute care providers have beat the drum, “send us help”, “send us supplies”, “send us staff”, but to no avail. The general public was and continues to be told we didn’t do our job in protecting our residents. Not only is this information hurtful, it is also false, each and every one of us did everything we could to protect our residents, at the risk of becoming ill ourselves!

Finally, a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that there is no evidence supporting the claim that we failed to do our job, that money was more important to investors than care, or that lower CMS star ratings resulted in more COVID-19 cases/deaths. In fact, there is evidence to support what we have said all along, community prevalence and facility size were the biggest factors in COVID-19 cases and deaths in post-acute care. The larger the center, the higher the community prevalence, the higher the COVID-19 rates, period.

Although this is great news and we should be thankful that we are being heard, it doesn’t give us an opportunity to stop the quality improvement journey. Every center has areas of risk, whether it be infection control, falls, wounds, etc. and we need to continue to challenge ourselves to do better. COVID-19 isn’t gone, it might be taking a break, but it will always be with us, so it is time to focus on overall care in our communities. Get that QAPI committee going again and perform your own studies, what areas would benefit from a little TLC from the committee? Thank you for all you have done and continue to do! Stay the course, stay informed and be well!