The Government Will Start to Phase Out COVID-19 Preventative Measures: How Do You Plan to Protect Your Residents and Staff?
National Social Distancing expired on April 30, 2020, but it is up to State Governors to decide when and how to phase out COVID-19 preventative measures. However, Nursing Home leaders cannot and will not neglect the health and well-being of the most vulnerable population entrusted in their care. A COVID-19 study conducted in China indicated and strongly suggested, that the use of strong social distancing efforts is critical in minimizing and eradicating the spread of COVID-19 (Sanche, Xu, Severson, Hengartner, Ke, 2020).
The question is: Do nursing home leaders feel comfortable eliminating social distancing COVID-19 preventative measures? If the answer is no, how do nursing home leaders continue to practice COVID-19 social distancing preventative measures after the government has eliminated it? The truth of the matter is, nursing home leaders are responsible for the health and well-being of the residents and staff entrusted in their care. Therefore, nursing home leaders need to establish a process of how their individual facilities will phase out social distancing and other COVID-19 preventative measures (i.e. the use of PPE), when the time comes. It is the unfortunate truth that the government does not fully understand the nursing home industry, and that is one of the reasons that they implement these rules and regulations that do not work for nursing homes. As a result, it is important that nursing leaders have effective plans in place on how to phase out the COVID-19 preventative measures, instead of blindly following government mandate.
As nursing home leaders, we should start now to explore suitable processes to gradually eliminate COVID-19 preventative measures for your individual facility, while maintaining the health and well-being of your residents and staff.
References
Sanche, Xu, Severson, Hengartner, Ke, (2020).High Contagiousness and Rapid Spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2