Confusion about early COVID-19 directives drove case count in nursing homes, report says
March 14, 2024
NJ Spotlight News
Types : In the News
With predictive modeling telling them COVID-19 patients would overwhelm New Jersey’s hospital system within weeks, state officials took drastic steps to expand acute care capacity in March 2020, setting up field hospitals and negotiating space on a U.S. Navy hospital ship docked in New York City.
And to ensure that hospitals could still discharge patients who were no longer critically ill but too weak to return home on their own, the state Department of Health directed nursing homes to admit any resident — even if they still had COVID-19 — as long as those infected could be safely isolated.
But according to an independent report on New Jersey’s COVID-19 response released Monday, that order confused nursing home operators. They were already facing growing levels of sickness, a shrinking workforce and limited tests and protective gear. And that confusion likely enabled the coronavirus to spread more quickly among some of the state’s most vulnerable residents.