CANHR Alerts, News and Resources regarding the COVID-19 Crisis.
CANHR has reviewed the various federal and California guidance regarding visitation in long term care facilities and synthesized the rules into a new fact sheet to guide residents and their families. The fact sheet highlights the types of visitation nursing homes and residential care facilities for the elderly must provide and under what conditions as well as the infection control protocols facilities may impose during visits.
Download the Fact Sheet HERE (PDF)
On June 26, the California Department of Public Health released a new policy regarding visitation that, for the first time since March, REQUIRES nursing homes to permit visitors for outdoor and indoor visits. Facilities with no current COVID-19 outbreak must permit outdoor visitation. Indoor visits must be permitted if a facility meets six criteria: no current COVID-19 outbreak, a decline in cases in the community, no new COVID-19 cases in the facility for the past 14 days, no staffing shortages and not using a COVID-19 staffing waiver, an adequate testing plan per AFL 20-53, and an approved COVID-19 Mitigation Plan.
On June 26, the California Department of Social Services released updated guidance regarding visitation in PIN 20-23-ASC that, for the first time since March, REQUIRES assisted living facilities to permit visitors under specified narrow circumstances, and permits indoor and outdoor visitation when certain criteria are met. Providers are required to follow the guidance unless there are contradictory or stricter requirements imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), California Department of Public Health (CDPH), or local health departments.
The new California state policies described in the summaries above may have been partially motivated by our #VisitationSavesLives campaign. Now that residents are having some of their rights restored, the campaign will advocate for better state enforcement.
To read more about this campaign and see how you can help, please visit our Visitation Saves Lives Website.
The notoriously mismanaged California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is back in the news again for all of the wrong reasons. Not only has the Department now acknowledged that it has failed to regularly test for COVID-19 the inspectors surveying nursing facilities with outbreaks of the virus, but it has embarked upon a sweeping plan to undermine the independence and reliability of its own inspection program at a time when nursing home residents need rigorous enforcement most.
California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) press conference at 11:00 A.M. (PST) on Monday, June 29, 2020 via Zoom to announce a June 30th Day of Action for restoring visitation rights for long term care facility residents who have not seen their family members the past three months.
CONTACTS: Patricia McGinnis, Executive Director, CANHR (415) 974-5171 patm@canhr.org Pauline Shatara, Deputy Director, CANHR (415) 974-5171 pauline@canhr.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 19, 2020 San Francisco, CA – California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform will hold a press conference at 10:00 am on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 via Zoom to announce their opposition to proposed cuts in home and community based services, the reinstitution of draconian Medi-Cal recovery policies and will call for reinstating visitation rights for family members of nursing home and assisted living residents who have not seen their family members for over two months.
Published April 10th, Introduction updated May 21st, Recommendations Updated June 24th, 2020, The last few months have been an unimaginable tragedy for many long-term care facility residents and their loved ones throughout California. Thousands of residents have died, suffered severe illnesses, or been hospitalized as COVID-19 outbreaks sweep through their facilities. Locked away from their loved ones, residents are suffering and dying alone in facilities that are not prepared or staffed to keep them safe during this pandemic.
Courtesy of The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care The landscape of COVID-19 response in nursing homes continues to evolve rapidly at the federal and state levels. The webinar series from Consumer Voice, Center for Medicare Advocacy, Long Term Care Community Coalition and Justice in Aging reviews the latest updates, issuances from CMS, legislation, and strategies for advocates and families.
By Eleanor Laise, Barron’s, August 6 2020 Illustration by Shout Over the past four years, the Portopiccolo Group has quietly built a nursing-home portfolio that rivals some of the nation’s largest chains. Simcha Hyman, the 30-year-old CEO of the Englewood Cliffs, N.J.–based private-equity and investment-management firm, and Naftali Zanziper, its 37-year-old president, acquired their first nursing home in 2016.