On March 14, the Governor banned all visitation at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in an effort to limit COVID-19 infections among the at-risk population. DeSantis said that early action and others were necessary and successfully limited the number of cases and deaths in those facilities.
But after two months of restrictions, residents are eager to interact with their families and other residents. Allowing visitation could be a “psychological boost” to residents who haven’t seen family during the pandemic.
“This separation — human beings are not meant to be separated, particularly family members, and especially some of our residents as they get older,” DeSantis said. “These are important moments and we want to get them back together, so we’ll work hard to do that very soon.”
However, that plan could be weeks or months away, and the Governor said he doesn’t want to put a timetable on the plan or give false hope. The state will err on the side of caution to prevent an outbreak in those facilities.
Plans would likely require visitors to use personal protective equipment and could involve using 45-minute diagnostic tests to clear visitors to enter facilities.
“My view has been I want to get to yes on that,” DeSantis said. “I just want to be able to know that we have procedures in place that if someone goes to visit their mother that two weeks later, we’re not going to have 50 infections roil a nursing home or a long-term care facility.”
However, access to those testing devices, mainly reserved for first responders and medical professionals, has been one factor already preventing the state from lifting the ban. Without enough tests for the nearly 700 nursing homes and more than 3,100 assisted living facilities, the state would have to unfairly choose which facilities get tests and therefore are allowed visitors.
Steve Bahmer, president and CEO of long-term care facility advocate group Leading Age Florida, raised the issue of allowing visitors this morning with the Governor.
“We’ve heard from members who are watching families be torn apart by their inability to connect with residents in assisted living or a nursing home environment,” Bahmer said. “Again, a necessary decision, but a very challenging one.”
Facilities have developed creative ways for residents to stay in touch with families and to maintain social interactions, including playing with technology, internal television networks and hallway and balcony bingo.
“If you can think of it, they’ve done it to try to make sure the residents are as mobile as they could be and that families were able to be in touch with them,” Bahmer said, “Because we are acutely aware of the profound effects of social isolation, especially with potential mental health results as well.”
As of Tuesday, 482 long-term care facilities have active COVID-19 cases with 1,604 positive residents and 1,840 positive staff members. As of Wednesday, 776 residents and staff have died of the disease.
This story originally appeared at Florida Politics.
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This article appears in May 7-13, 2020.