NYC Preparing Nursing Homes for Next Possible Infectious Disease Outbreak

NYC Preparing Nursing Homes for Next Possible Infectious Disease Outbreak

 

By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh 

 

New York City is preparing nursing homes for the next possible infectious disease outbreak.

As reported by the NY Post, the New York City Health Department is developing a new program to improve infection control practices throughout nursing homes in the five boroughs.  The city has sent a proposal to potential contractors who will set up the infection control program. The winning bidder will be sanctioned to earn $687,339 for the implementation.  The plan, entitled the “respiratory protection program” aims to center on training and educating workers at nursing homes regarding the proper use of N95 respiratory masks and other personal protective equipment.  The new program will aim to keep the city’s 245 nursing homes and long-term care facilities better protected from new strains of emerging COVID-19 variants.

Since a solid majority of nursing home employees and residents are vaccinated against COVID-19, the program will focus on other potential infectious outbreaks too. “There’s something new that could come down the pike. We don’t know what mother nature will bring us,” said Michael Balboni, a member of Mayor Eric Adams’ COVID-19 task force, who is also the Executive Director of the New York Health Care Facilities Association, representing some 90 city nursing homes.  “It’s always good to evaluate the effectiveness of the infection control protocols,” added Balboni. As per the Post, the training program will also be implemented in the city’s 2,000 group homes for people with developmental disabilities.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed substantial gaps in infection prevention and control knowledge and practice where healthcare is delivered,” the Fund for Public Health, the non-profit fundraising arm for the city Health Department, said in the contract proposal submitted for bidders. “These challenges are particularly acute in long-term care facilities and other congregate settings, nursing homes and adult care facilities, where groups of people reside, receive healthcare, and gather in close proximity,” says the proposal.  “To stop the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory infections, all personnel in these facilities need at least a foundational understanding of IPC [infection protection and control] and how to appropriately use personal protective equipment (PPE), including face masks and N95 respirators.”

In 2020, when the Coronavirus pandemic first struck, the nursing homes were largely unprepared and suffered dire consequences—including massive spread of infection and deaths of over 15,000 nursing home residents within the state of NY.  During the pandemic, the nursing homes didn’t have enough masks and other PPE.  News reports said that nurses used trash bags in lieu of medical gowns and had to bring their own masks because of the shortages.  There was also the infamous requirement that nursing homes had to accept recovering COVID-19 patients from the hospital, which in hindsight is said to have greatly contributed to the rate of infections in the elderly homes.  Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced heavy controversy for the law, although he and state health officials denied the connection.

“This PROJECT aims to facilitate the development, implementation, and maintenance of RPPs [respiration protection programs] to minimize exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and prevent transmission of COVID-19 in high-risk LTCFs and congregate settings,” the city proposal states.