Nursing Homes Archives

Veterans Commission homes continue to fight coronavirus, 109 veterans dead since Sept. 1

November 24, 2020 By Ashley Byrd

St. Louis Veterans Home

The Missouri Veterans Commission’s Veterans Homes continue to fight COVID-19, and according to spokesman Jamie Melchert, they are continuing daily testing using PCR and antigen testing; training on the proper use of PPE and enhanced PPE; cleaning and disinfecting and enhanced training in these areas; infection control inspections and additional training; additional supervision, including from central office leadership. The commission’s homes are also using medical staffing from the VA and Missouri Disaster Medical Assistance Team (MO DMAT-1).

Nursing homes in the Midwest have seen dramatic increases in cases and deaths in past two weeks.

A total of 109 veterans in seven MVC homes have died due to COVID-19 from September through Nov. 18, as nursing homes across the Midwest have seen dramatic increases in cases and deaths in the past two weeks. About two-thirds of the COVID-19 deaths in Missouri’s nursing homes have happened in the same time frame. The St. Louis Post reported that as of Nov. 8, the virus has killed 1,680 residents, 263 more than just the previous two weeks.

Armstrong Teasdale corporate law firm began conducting an independent investigation of Missouri’s Veterans Homes on Oct. 12, at the request of Governor Mike Parson. A final report has not been released, but according to Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, who oversees the commission, air flow systems were part of the challenge.

Kehoe emphasized that the state’s veterans homes suffer some of the same challenges that other long-term care facilities do.

“It’s a vulnerable population,” Kehoe said. “You have employees and vendors in those homes that actually go out and maybe have another job, or go out to their families and could contract the virus and bring it back in.”

Veteran deaths by facility between Sept. 1 and Nov. 18, 2020:

Cameron 37
Cape Girardeau 29
Mexico 5
Mt. Vernon 9
St. James 22
St. Louis 1
Warrensburg 7

Missouri submits 111-page COVID-19 vaccine plan to CDC

October 15, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri has submitted its plan for administering the impending COVID vaccine to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The state will receive feedback from the CDC on the 111-page plan by October 26.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) logo (image courtesy of DHSS)

State Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Director Dr. Randall Williams tells Capitol reporters that the plan’s hallmark is collaboration and coordination.

“It represents more than 100 state employees, a whole government approach, working with FQHC’s, working with hospitals, working with nursing homes, working with partners in the state and our federal partners,” Dr. Williams says.

FQHC’s are federally qualified health centers.

Missouri’s plan is based upon CDC’s anticipation of a phased availability of vaccines within the state.

Dr. Williams says Missouri will collaborate with health care systems and pharmacy partners to vaccinate long-term care facility staff and other health care workers.

“Our north star is to get this vaccine to those families, for their loved ones to get it, and at the same time to prevent community transmission so we can reduce the stress on our health care system,” he says.

Dr. Williams spoke to Capitol reporters at a Jefferson City press conference on Wednesday afternoon, where he was joined by Governor Mike Parson.

The plan says the highest risk population for mortality from COVID is nursing home residents, with 75 percent of Missouri’s COVID deaths happening in these facilities.

Missouri has about 425,000 health care workers. Dr. Williams says that as vaccine availability expands, efforts will be aimed at residents most at risk, the elderly and those with certain medical conditions.

The Missouri Hospital Association is praising the plan. They have been a partner in the vaccine planning effort.

“Missouri’s hospitals will be actively engaged in advocating for vaccination and administering the vaccine in the communities they serve,” Missouri Hospital Association President Herb Kuhn says, in a written statement.

Click here to read the 111-page plan.

The state Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) says the state has had 150,554 COVID cases this year, along with 2,442 deaths.

Missouri health department offers new guidance for nursing home visits

June 16, 2020 By Ashley Byrd

UPDATED WITH NEW INFORMATION FROM DHSS

As part of the state’s reopening plan, Missouri will be giving long term care facilities much more flexibility to allow outdoor visits and visits through an open window or communal dining and group activities for residents who cannot leave their rooms.

According to DHSS, the long-term care facility guidance will be a “phased-in approach that will take into consideration many factors including the current status of COVID-19 in the community and current status of COVID-19 in the facility. In addition, other facility-specific guidance will likely be included in the reopening plan in line with guidance released from CMS.”

“Since the underlying health conditions of residents in these facilities make them more vulnerable to COVID-19, the full reopening of all facilities will occur gradually and in phases. However, in order to allow facility residents a form of in-person visitation with family members and loved ones until a facility can fully reopen, the State will ease restrictions to allow for outside and window visitation at long-term care facilities assuming proper social distancing protocols and other criteria are being met.”

For instance, DHSS suggests a facility can consider visits if it has not had any COVID-19 staff or resident cases, or it has been two incubation periods (28 days total) since the last positive COVID-19 case acquired at the facility.

Outdoor visits are suggested for residents who do not have the virus or not suspected to have it or are recovered.

Social distancing and CDC-approved hygiene practices are still suggested.

Residents and patients in Missouri’s long-term care and skilled facilities have been some of the most vulnerable to COVID-19 and its spread. According to state health officials, 222 Missouri long-term care facilities have reported at least one case among staff or residents.

The state health department says Missouri ranks below national averages for cases per 1,000 residents, resident deaths and nursing staff cases per 1,000 residents. This was considered along with a 43 percent decrease in hospitalizations in Missouri since May 1 and increased testing rates.

Parson Thursday briefing: Missouri is fully open, State Fair will go on in some form (VIDEO)

June 11, 2020 By Ashley Byrd

Missouri’s governor announced today that he thinks the state is better prepared to handle the COVID-19 virus and will be fully open for business June 16. The phase 2 step should still include social distancing and other precautions, he says, especially for people with health conditions that make them vulnerable.

That includes nursing homes, said Parson, so his office will publish a plan for long-term care facilities “in the next few days.”

In the briefing, state Economic Development Director Rob Dixon said “signs are pointing toward recovery” in the state’s business activities.

WATCH FULL PRESS CONFERENCE:

Three Missouri Nursing Homes on Poorest Performing List

December 3, 2007 By admin Leave a Comment

Three Missouri nursing homes show up on a list of the nation’s poorest performing nursing homes.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid says the Senior Estates in Kansas City, the St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Florissant, and West Village Manor in Columbia are among the 52 nursing homes that consistently provide poor quality care. The agency says all three of the homes have been considered as Special Focus Facilities for 19 months.

The designation starts a progressive system of enforcement that could, in time, take Medicaid and Medicare certification away from the home and clear the way for state action.

Washington and Florida are the only other states with three nursing homes on the list.

Legislation Responds to Anderson Guest House Fire

April 11, 2007 By admin Leave a Comment

The tragedy of eleven deaths at a southwest Missouri residential home for the elderly and the mentally ill has prompted legislation requiring sprinkler systems at all long-term facilities.

Long-term care facilities licensed by the state, such as nursing homes, would have to have sprinkler systems, as well as complete fire alarm systems. Fire safety training, including fire drills, would be required. There would have to be staff members awake and dressed at all times so they could assist residents in cases of emergency.

Rep. Kevin Wilson (R-Neosho) tells colleagues they must toughen standards in wake of the fatal fire at the Anderson Guest House November 27th of last year. The facility didn’t have a sprinkler system. Wilson says the residents thought they were safe and were let down by the state.

The House rejected an amendment that would have allowed facilities to get ought of the sprinkler requirement if they met other fire safety standards. Many operators of older residential care facilities have said that they sprinkler requirement would force them out of business, because of its cost. The requirement remains in the bill. Older homes will have to have sprinkler systems by 2012. State loans will be made available to finance the cost.

Another positive vote is needed to send HCS HB 952 & 674 to the Senate.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

Group Home Fire Safety Bill Advances

March 27, 2007 By admin Leave a Comment

The legislature is working to prevent another Anderson Guest House tragedy.

What started out as a tougher elder abuse law took on an entirely new identify after the group home in Anderson burned last November and left 12 people dead.

Now the proposal will require all group homes to have sophisticated smoke, fire, and heat alarms within two years, and modern sprinkler systems within six years. Sponsor Michael Gibbons thinks a majority of Missouri’s group homes lack modern sprnkler systems.

Senator Bill Stouffer of Napton fears the sprinkler requiremenst will drive operating costs so high that some homes will close. He says many of the facilities are old and the sprinkler installation costs will be "tremendous." He cites one 60-bed facility that has received a bid of almost $650,000 for a sprinkler system.

One of his fellow senator has suggested it’s too bad, but sprinkler systems should be a cost of doing business.

Gibbons has built in a program to help group homes finance the sprinkler systems. He says he wants places to be safe but he also wants places that can afford to stay open.

Gibbons’ plan has the state loaning the group homes half of the costs of installing the systems.

Stouffer has failed to get the sprinkler requirement removed.

download Bob Priddy’s story (:60 mp;3)

Governor Blunt to Tour Fatal Fire Scene

November 27, 2006 By admin Leave a Comment

Governor Blunt plans to tour the scene of one of the worst fire tragedies in Missouri history, the Anderson Guest House in which 10 residents died and 25 were injured in an overnight fire. The governor’s spokesman, Brian Hauswirth, says Blunt will be briefed by other state officials who are at the scene. State Fire Marshal Randy Cole is on the scene along with State Highway Patrol Colonel James Keathley and Department of Public Safety Director Mark James. Hauswirth says the governor wants to hear first-hand what happened. The Anderson Guest House serves both mentally ill and elderly residents. Thirty-three residents and two staff members were at the home at the time of the fire. The dead ranged in age from the early 20s to the elderly. No names have been released. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

Curtailing Nursing Home Medication Mistakes

October 26, 2006 By admin Leave a Comment

A study of medication errors in nursing homes suggests they can be curtailed by talk and technology. Researchers under supervision of Professor Jill Scott-Cawiezell have watched 16-thousand medications being delivered in nursing homes and they’ve seen how good people working hard face situations in which errors are produced. Cawiezell, who is with the nursing school at the University of Missouri-Columbia, says nursing home staff members are aware of all of the errors…but leaders often are aware of less than five percent of them. She says nursing home administators need to cultivate a culture of safety. But she says it’s contrary to the way business has often been done in which someone who makes a mistake is branded as “bad.” She says the culture of safety leads to an understand that most mistakes in health care are failures of systems that set up people for mistakes. She says technology is a system that can alleviate opportunities for errors by providing more accurate record-keeping and better direction. But she says it is important for management to understand how life happens to the staff, listen to staff problems, and take steps to solve the problems instead of assessing blame. Her research is published in the professional journal “Nursing Forum.”