Long-term care facilities continue to rack up record number of COVID-19 deaths

July 16, 2020 – San Diego, CA.  The number of deaths of residents and workers in long-term care facilities and nursing homes from COVID-19 has reached 57,000, a staggering number that grows daily. Reports from a New York Times database show the novel virus has infected more than 316,000 people at 14,000 facilities.  

“While 9% of the country’s cases have occurred in long-term care facilities, deaths related to Covid-19 in these facilities account for more than 42% of the country’s pandemic fatalities”. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-nursing-homes.html

The U.S. case fatality is now at 4%. The median case fatality rate in long-term care facilities is 17%

States inconsistent in reporting cases or deaths in long-term facilities to health agencies or news outlets.

Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey and South Carolina offer regular reports on both cases and deaths at specific facilities, but New York releases information on deaths but not cases. Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota and a few others give some data on cases, but not deaths.  This is possibly due to either privacy concerns or exposing themselves to wrongful death lawsuits.  

Trump Administration Hijacks all COVID-19 Data from the CDC.

Now with news stories of the current U.S. Administration wanting to hijack all COVID-19 data from the Center for Disease Control, will only compound the problem of getting useful data. In our opinion taking all COVID-19 data away from the CDC is not for scientific reason, but to control the narrative of this global pandemic.

We’ve already heard many falsehoods from both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

To quote V.P. Mike Pence, “We’ve slowed the spread, we flattened the curve”. “I think by Memorial Day weekend we will have this Coronavirus behind us”.

When we look at the data from CDC we see that America has in fact not slowed or flattened the curve. America is leading in cases and deaths.

How can there be more COVID-19 deaths in a nursing home than confirmed COVID-19 cases?

We turn to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) system COVID-19 Long Term Care Facility Module to address this question. (Link source below)

From the PDF file: The CMS website may show more COVID-19 deaths than confirmed COVID-19 cases because the total number of COVID-19 deaths may also include cases of residents with suspected COVID-19 infection and COVID-19 admissions (residents with COVID-19 that are newly admitted or re-admitted to the nursing home), which are reported separately from the nursing home’s count of confirmed COVID-19 cases. For example, a nursing home may show 20 deaths with 10 confirmed COVID-19 cases, but also have an additional 20 COVID-19 admissions and 20 suspected COVID-19 cases (totaling 50 residents with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, including COVID-19 positive admissions, which resulted in 20 COVID19-related deaths). Additionally, it is possible that the nursing home did not have retrospective confirmed COVID-19 case data available at the time of reporting, but they did have and report retrospective COVID-19 death data. The National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) COVID-19 Long-Term Care Facility Module allows, but does not require, facilities to report retrospective COVID-19 data from January 1, 2020 to April 30, 2020. These numbers may also be due to a data entry error on the part of the facility – for example, a facility may be entering cumulative numbers of confirmed COVID-19 deaths instead of incremental new deaths, or entering data in an incorrect field.

How can there be COVID-19 deaths in a nursing home, but zero confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases or COVID-19 admissions?

The CMS website may show COVID-19 deaths and zero confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases or COVID-19 admissions because a facility’s case data was identified as not passing the Quality Assurance process. Data quality checks are performed to identify instances where facilities may have entered incorrect data, such as entering cumulative counts over time instead of new cases, and other data entry errors. When this happens, some of a facility’s data may be suppressed, resulting in a facility showing zero cases, while the death totals were not suppressed and are displayed. These numbers may also be due to a data entry error on the part of the facility – for example, a facility may be entering data in an incorrect field.

To view the total resident COVID-19 deaths by state please visit https://data.cms.gov/stories/s/COVID-19-Nursing-Home-Data/bkwz-xpvg

Here is the State Breakdown of COVID-19 Death Hot Spots in long-term facilities:

California – 2,318

Washington – 261

Arizona – 290

Colorado – 417

Texas – 799

Louisiana – 1,071

Mississippi – 429

Alabama – 397

Georgia – 831

Illinois – 2,500

Indiana – 1,040

Michigan – 1,564

New York – 4,168

New Jersey – 3,794

Massachusetts – 3,412

Maryland – 1,161

Pennsylvania – 3,252

Ohio – 1,234

Florida – 1,011

Virginia – 535

North Carolina – 526

South Carolina – 339

Can I File a Covid-19 Nursing Home Lawsuit in my State?

Since some states are pushing back to protect nursing homes and long-term care facilities from Covid-19 litigation and lawsuits, please call us and we can get your facts and then determine how to proceed.

We will fight the good fight and protect those families that have tragically lost a loved one in a nursing home from coronavirus. 

If you have questions about filing a Covid-19 nursing home lawsuit, please contact us today, we’re here to protect your rights. Please call us at 1-800-631-5656 or use the secure contact form on this page.

Sources:

https://data.cms.gov/stories/s/COVID-19-Nursing-Home-Data/bkwz-xpvg

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/long-term-care.html