S.F. nursing home to take COVID cases
At least one San Francisco nursing home, the Campus for Jewish Living, could begin accepting patients infected with the new coronavirus who no longer need to be in a hospital — but are either in recovery or need hospice care, according to a letter obtained by The Chronicle.
The 378bed nursing home in the Excelsior has prepared its own wing where it can accept COVID19 patients, said Marcus Young, a spokesman for the nursing home. The patients would be isolated from the rest of the facility — which does not have any COVID19 cases of its own — and staff members would only be allowed to tend to those in the special unit.
“We recognize that these mandates may cause some concerns, but please be assured that the safety of our residents, patients and
staff remains our top priority,” an April 2 letter sent to residents and their family members said.
The preparations at the Campus for Jewish Living come after the California Department of Public Health issued an order last week that skilled nursing facilities must allow COVID19 patients — unless the facility cannot provide the proper isolation and personal protective equipment for frontline workers. The point is to free up hospitals from patients who do not need to be in an acute setting, but still need isolation and care.
No COVID19 patients have been admitted to the nursing home yet, and it is unclear how many the facility is prepared to handle, Young said. The San Francisco Department of Public Health did not respond when asked how many other skilled nursing facilities around the city plan to accept COVID19 patients.
Young said that the nursing home has taken “every precaution to ensure the safety of our patients, residents and staff.”
However, advocates and doctors criticized the order and warned that moving COVID19 patients into a nursing home could lead to catastrophe.
“Cramming infected patients into crowded, understaffed facilities with extraordinarily vulnerable residents is a recipe for disaster,” Patricia McGinnis, executive director for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, said in a statement last week.
As the pandemic rips through the country and overwhelms emergency rooms and intensive care units, states like New York and Massachusetts have also tapped their nursing homes to provide space for COVID19 patients. There are more than 1,000 skilled nursing facilities in California and more than 200 in the Bay Area. It is unclear how many will accept patients with the virus.
Nursing homes and longtermcare facilities around the country have become hot spots for the virus: San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital, a 780bed nursing home, has at least 16 positive cases among residents and staff. Meanwhile, 35 people died at a Kirkland, Wash., nursing home in February, and a 47bed nursing home in Orinda reported that 49 people, including 27 patients, have tested positive. One patient who was in hospice died, officials said Monday.
One woman whose 94yearold mother lives at the Campus for Jewish Living is furious over what she fears is a “death sentence” for the vulnerable residents at the facility. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation against her mother, told The Chronicle that she only learned Tuesday that the facility would begin accepting COVID19 patients.
The Chronicle agreed not to name her in accordance with the paper’s anonymous source policy.
Nursing homes and seniorcare facilities in the Bay Area — and around the country — have banned and restricted visitors in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus inside the facility. But even though the facility said it is taking precautions, she still does not trust that the residents, and her mother, will be safe.
“Why would they close the place down to relatives and all visitors and go through all that and then bring in people who have COVID19?” she said. “It doesn’t make sense . ... If they bring patients in and people catch it and it spreads through ... I just think it is going to be a nightmare.”
Jan EmersonShea, a spokeswoman with the California Hospital Association, previously told The Chronicle hospitals need to discharge people who are less sick to free up beds for the sickest patients.
EmersonShea said there “isn’t an easy answer to any of this.”
“There are concerns on both sides,” EmersonShea said. “From the hospital perspective, we need to get people who no longer need acute care to find an alternative place to go.”