North Carolina will test all nursing home residents and staff after the state has seen an increased number of cases and deaths stemming from these congregate living environments.

According to Dr. Catherine Sevier, AARP president for North Carolina, there has been a ‘disproportionate number of deaths’ emanating from nursing homes in North Carolina.

“This has been a very significant experience for all of us in the nursing homes,” Sevier said. “In North Carolina we have been very significantly impacted with nursing home outbreaks. About 25 percent of our 422 nursing homes have had outbreaks, and the outbreaks have been anything from two to three patients to in the hundreds,” Sevier said.

Sevier said about 50 percent of the deaths in North Carolina have been in nursing homes even though these facilities only account for around six percent of the overall cases.

She said part of the problem comes down to a number of challenges nursing homes have faced since the beginning of the pandemic — mostly revolving around the amount of protective equipment available and testing.

“The testing that we had in the state, and still seem to be lagging in, wasn’t available,” Sevier said. “We still have many nursing homes in North Carolina who don’t have baseline testing yet and so we don’t really know what we’re dealing with and we need to baseline test every nursing home.”

Sevier said this baseline testing needs to include nursing home staff, and that nursing homes enter into a contract with all their residents to provide safe care for them, so staffers need to be held accountable to make sure they’re only adding to a safe and healthy environment.

“There is accountability for making certain that policies and procedures are put in place that staff are not allowed to work without being tested,” Sevier said. “All of those things are clearly the responsibility of the nursing home and we need to expect them to do that regardless of the stress that they’re under because of COVID.”

The state announced on Tuesday that all North Carolinians living and working in nursing homes will soon receive a one-time coronavirus test. The state’s effort to boost testing will be underway from July through the middle of August.

North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services will partner with CVS Omnicare to test an estimated 36,000 nursing home residents and 25,000 workers in more than 400 sites throughout the state.

As of Thursday, There are 912 people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 in North Carolina. Within the state, 74 percent of ventilators and 22 percent of ICU beds are available at hospitals.

Sevier said she hopes what we are experiencing right now will ultimately change how long-term care facilities operate.

“We need help from the government – we need to make sure that we have enough PPE that people can be protected – we need the resources to really make sure that a nursing home provide safe care and we need the regulation to do that,” Sevier said. “So, there’s got to be legislative work done as well as regulatory work at the state and local level.”

For more information on how to get involved, and engage with local nursing homes and residents, click here.

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