Florida nursing home COVID-1 9 deaths spike in August.
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Nursing home COVID-19 deaths jumped significantly in August as the delta variant sent hospitalizations and cases surging across Florida, according to an analysis of federal data by the Orlando Sentinel and Spectrum News 13.
The state’s nursing homes reported 184 resident deaths for the first three weeks of August, about double the number for the entire previous month, statistics from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show.
“It is tragic,” said Jeff Johnson, state director of AARP Florida. “It’s something that for the last couple of months we’ve been saying is unfortunately predictable.”
Weekly nursing home death totals started climbing in the middle of July. For the week of June 28-July 4, nursing homes reported six resident deaths. That number stood at 73 for the most recent week of data ending on Aug. 22.
So far, the summer 2021 death toll hasn’t reached the numbers recorded during previous pandemic waves when vaccines were not available. Nursing homes reported 292 deaths for just one week in July 2020. Earlier this year, 138 deaths were reported for the week ending Jan. 17.
About half of Florida nursing home staff and three-fourths of residents are fully vaccinated, according to the most recent data from CMS.
“We are near the bottom of the barrel with vaccinations,” Johnson said. “There is huge variation from facility to facility. There are facilities that are near or at 100% of staff vaccinated. There are some where like nobody has been vaccinated.”
Compared with other states, only Louisiana has a lower percentage of nursing
“We are near the bottom of the barrel with vaccinations. There is huge variation from facility to facility. There are facilities that are near or at 100% of staff vaccinated. There are some where like nobody has been vaccinated.”
— Jeff Johnson, state director of AARP Florida
home staff vaccinated against COVID-19, according to AARP. Florida ranks third from the bottom in the percentage of fully vaccinated nursing home residents.
President Joe Biden has announced nursing homes will need to vaccinate all of their staff or face losing federal funds from Medicare and Medicaid.
Those rules are still being developed, but nursing homes are working hard to encourage staff and residents to take the vaccine, said Kristen Knapp, a spokesperson for the Florida Health Care Association, which represents about 560 nursing homes.
Nursing homes are offering cash and other incentives to employees who get the shot, she said. A few have made the vaccine mandatory for employees.
The industry is concerned about a government-imposed vaccine mandate that isn’t also applied to hospitals and other health care providers, Knapp said.
“There are concerns staff will leave because they are being mandated to take the vaccine,” she said. “That is extremely concerning when we already have a shortage in our workforce.”
Florida nursing homes are caring for more than 60,000 people, Knapp said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis focused much of his COVID-19 messaging on the need to protect nursing home residents, offering the vaccine to all nursing home and assisted-living facility residents by Feb. 1.
As of late, the state has set up strike teams to administer monoclonal antibody treatments in nursing homes with outbreaks. That therapy has been shown to reduce hospitalization chances if administered early.
The nursing home industry is facing real challenges in vaccinating its workforce and residents, but the gaps are resulting in preventable deaths, said Jay Wolfson, a public health professor at the University of South Florida.
“These are cases waiting
to happen,” he said. “Ideally, 100% of the residents should be vaccinated and 100% of the staff. You are dealing with the most vulnerable, at-risk population in the state.”
Even nursing home residents who are vaccinated could be vulnerable because many have conditions that weaken their immune system, Wolfson said.
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended people with weakened immune systems get a third dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
The rise in cases and deaths has been stressful for Central Florida families. Tammy Findlay-Bell said she’s been worried about her 83-year-old father who is staying at Solaris Healthcare Merritt Island in Brevard County.
She hasn’t been able to visit her father in person as much because of restrictions put in place whenever there is a positive case.
“It’s just heartbreaking not to be able to see him every day and to not know if he understands why we’re absent,” Findlay-Bell said.