A new study by a University of Rochester Medical Center professor found notable links between the quality of nursing homes and COVID-19 outbreaks.
Residents of long-term care facilities with lower nurse staffing levels, poorer quality scores, and higher concentrations of disadvantaged residents suffer from higher rates of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths.
“In nursing homes, quality and staffing are important factors, and there already exists system-wide disparities in which facilities with lower resources and higher concentrations of socio-economically disadvantaged residents have poorer health outcomes,” said Yue Li, Ph.D., URMC professor and lead author of the study. “These same institutional disparities are now playing out during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Current evidence suggests that COVID-19 disproportionately impacts older adults and individuals with chronic health conditions. These factors are more concentrated in nursing homes where residents are characterized by advanced age, more frequent and complex chronic disease patterns, and highly impaired physical, cognitive, and immune system functions, putting these populations at greater risk for more severe COVID-19 infections.
The study’s authors suggest that these findings should recalibrate the nation’s efforts to control infection rates in nursing homes.