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International review of innovations to protect nursing home residents from infectious diseases such as COVID-19
International review of innovations to protect nursing home residents from infectious diseases such as COVID-19
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- LTSS choices
- Author(s):
- Reinhard, Susan C., author
Tilly, Jane A., author - Contributor(s):
- AARP (Organization), issuing body.
Public Policy Institute (AARP (Organization)), issuing body. - Publication:
- Washington, DC : AARP Public Policy Institute, May 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Communicable Disease Control
COVID-19 -- epidemiology
Internationality
Nursing Homes
United States - Genre(s):
- Review
Technical Report - Abstract:
- The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on the deficits of U.S. residential care facilities, which include nursing homes and assisted living. People in these facilities are more likely to die or have increased health problems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and they are subject to other infectious diseases, such as influenza. This situation is not unique to the U.S. Other countries are experiencing the same vulnerabilities. Nursing homes provide most of the basic requirements for people who need LTSS, including housing, services, a workforce to support resident needs, and some level of community integration (see A Series on Transforming Long-Term Services and Supports). However, there are driving and restraining forces that affect how well these basic components come together to support a high-quality experience for consumers. Clearly, rapid transmission of a deadly virus is one of those forces, and a very serious one. Yet deaths of thousands of nursing home residents are not inevitable. Critical driving forces for safe care include continual preparation for pandemics, routine infection control procedures, and immediate interventions to combat the threats. Lessons from other countries offer some important ideas for the U.S. This Spotlight follows on and amplifies the earlier AARP Public Policy Institute publication, LTSS Choices: COVID-19 and Nursing Home Residents. In this Spotlight, we next look to the global community to explore how we can help mitigate the effects of current and future pandemics on U.S. nursing home and assisted living residents. For this report, we reviewed the international community's experience with the COVID-19 pandemic to learn how other countries have handled their responses to the pandemic and what their experts recommend to improve care for residents (see Methods Summary). This Spotlight focuses on two sources for insights. One is the experience of some countries that have had few deaths in their residential care facilities, how they prepare for pandemics in general, and how they responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. The other is international experts' agreement around recommendations to improve how nursing homes and assisted living facilities respond to infectious disease. Those two areas of focus, in fact, converge, for we found that the relatively successful countries' responses to the pandemic align with those recommendations. After examining the scope of the pandemic problem for residents and workers in other countries, we focus on how the relatively successful countries have handled the COVID-19 pandemic and any related special features of their care systems and nursing homes playing a role in that success. We highlight experts' recommendations, understanding that the U.S. cannot implement some of them for various reasons, including differences in government authority across countries. However, sharing ideas offered by global thought leaders can stimulate new approaches to issues that we must address to help ensure that we do not repeat the devastating impact of COVID-19 on residents and staff. Note that this Spotlight does not address all potential workforce innovations. We address additional innovations in a subsequent Spotlight that focuses on the LTSS workforce across care settings.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-ND license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (38 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918316880106676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316880106676