My mother is in a nursing home recovering from a major surgery. I got a call last night from the nursing home saying until further notice there will no visitors allowed into the nursing home. It seems there was a confirmed case of Corona virus in a hospital in a neighboring county (PA); the patient has been sent home, self-quarantined.
What is going to happen to the country or the world? People (my mother, for one) are pretty much being imprisoned on the say-so of a run-of-the-mill local administrator.
Very disturbing stuff going on and I really don’t know what’s right, what’s wrong, or what to make of it.
I have wondered about this too. My mother is in a skilled nursing center recovering from hip surgery. Last weekend they took my temperature before I could visit.
Remember that eighteen patients died in one nursing home in Washington State. Yes, it’s unusual for nursing homes to be restricting visitors like this, but the patients are at an age where they’re susceptible to any sort of infection and this is particularly dangerous. And it’s not just the local administrator making the decision; this recommendation (to restrict visitors) was made by industry leaders (paywall warning).
My mom went into a nursing home/rehab facility yesterday (recovering from a stroke). That facility is discouraging visits, making everyone use hand sanitizer under supervision when entering and leaving, and restricting movement inside the facility. I suspect they’re going to prohibit visits soon.
The university I teach at has also suspended in-person classes, having us go 100% online.
I know this is a serious illness, and communal living sites – especially ones with a bunch of elderly and otherwise at-risk residents – are tinderboxes for an outbreak. But I also worry about the mental health toll on residents who will be deprived of interaction with their loved ones.
The main idea is that, if one case is found, there may be others that are unknown nearby. They’re restricting visitors in general because it’s easier than making sure no one comes in from the infected area.
I’m not saying that’s necessarily the best risk calculation, just explaining what I think they are doing. Add in that people in nursing homes are in the “likely to die” category, and it makes sense.
Either they restrict visitors AFTER the virus gets inside the facility and starts killing the residents, or they restrict visitors before the virus reaches that point. They know it’s nearby.
I happen to live very near the facility that lost 20+ residents, and I can tell you which scenario I prefer.
They are trying to prevent your mother from being imprisoned in a pine box. My advice is to give up the delusion that this pandemic will never be inconvenient to you.
Perhaps the residents can use technologies like Facetime or Skype to keep in touch with family? I know many are not very comfortable with the technology but perhaps some of the staff can assist.
I’m sorry for your frustration, but the administrator is probably in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t position. If they restrict visitors, and nothing bad happens, everyone will say, “see? It wasn’t necessary.” If they restrict visitors, and bad things happen anyway, people will say, “you should have done more!” If they don’t restrict visitors, and bad things happen, they’ll get the blame.
Now, it’s true that if they don’t restrict visitors, and nothing bad happens, they might come out ahead. But given what we do know about the virus, and what we don’t, are you really willing to risk the health of your mother and the other individuals in the facility by ignoring the best advice professionals are prepared to give?
In January of this year, my father who was is a nursing home contracted the flu, and they isolated him in a room away from other residents. We had to put on gowns, shoe covers, masks, hand sanitizer and also gloves to visit him. Within a week other residents were getting sick and they closed the facility to visitors for 14 days. It turned out that only my father had the flu, everyone else was sick with something else, but I completely understand why visitors were restricted. And this was before coronavirus hit our shores.
By the way, to address one concern by the OP, family members from different counties and different states visited my father. So the fact that the virus is in a different county isn’t really something that provides protection.