We ensure quality care through
Interim Management, Skilled Monitoring, and Reinvention
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Greetings!
We lead again with the comparative data: On August 16, in the U.S. there were 42,303 new cases: 516 deaths (170,155 total) in comparison 477 new cases and 4 deaths (35,396 total) in Italy; 625 new cases and no deaths (9,290 total) in Germany; in France, we have 14-day data only, during that time they had 16,062 new case and 96 deaths (30,410 total); the United Kingdom has had a total of 319,197 cases, yet no new cases yesterday, (41,369 total) one new death yesterday.
In the main block we focus on nursing homes, starting with the provocative-in-title-and-thesis article published in The Nation, “the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States, covering progressive political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis." “It’s Time to Abolish Nursing Homes” does not convince the curators to abolish, yet it offers a history of why so many patients are in nursing homes and not cared for at home. This publication, articles penned by our team, and a significant number of our readers have written on what is and has been going wrong in nursing homes, some of you are engaged in revitalizing a broken long-term care system. The title should not stop you from reading this article for it is less about abolishing than it is about understanding how we got to a broken nursing home system and the need for far more resources devoted to at-home alternatives.
Harper's, one of the longest publishing monthly magazines, has veteran essayist and reporter Andrew Cockburn’s article“Elder Abuse–Nursing homes, the coronavirus, and the bottom line." Cockburn also finds too little use of home care, the profoundly ill prepared response by the industry, and the triumph of profits over resident care and safety. Cockburn offers as we have in the past examples of those who did it right.
Both articles illustrate that well-paid and properly-trained home workers are key to expanding home alternatives and getting the over 800,000 off waiting lists. To that end, we provide a report on the efforts of our largest Medicaid Managed care plan LA Care, who working with the SEIU has established program to train and properly pay family members and neighbors to provide at home care to Dual Eligible patients (recipients of both Medicare and Medicaid and in many instance other welfare programs).
“Deadly Combination of Private Equity and Nursing Homes During a Pandemic” is a report from Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, which documents how for-profit nursing homes in New Jersey fall far behind non-profits in many quality and safety metrics.
Our Second Section offers reporting on what is working to slow the virus and what could work as a rapid testing strategy. As to the former, the NY Times reports “as the coronavirus spread on the Fort Apache reservation in Arizona, medical teams sought out residents who might have been exposed. The effort paid off in unexpected ways.” A great effort by public health officials, tribe leadership, and the use of a very old low-tech diagnostic tool made all the difference. The later article summarizes the recent efforts by Michael Mina, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard, who has a strategy for rapid testing that is being slowed by the FDA and others in power.
A bonus third section introduces you to a Washington Post review of a Coronavirus app. Bluetooth exposure-notification apps like Virginia’s Covidwise aren’t much of a privacy risk. But we won’t know if they’re useful until many more people try them. We also reference a just initiated WSJ deep dive series, only available to WSJ subscribers.
This is the 14th edition of Revitalize and the Curators thank you for opening it and the kind words you have offered us. [Past issues missed are now available on our website. We are most interested in hearing from you on today’s and past issues–so feel free to hit the link to Jerry below or REVITALIZE@thepcos.com to write to us with your insights and ideas and articles you believe need linking or to be told; and now from Culver City we offer the Revitalize list for Aug. 19, 2020:
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Revitalize: The week in health-care news you need
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As the coronavirus spread on the Fort Apache reservation in Arizona, medical teams sought out residents who might have been exposed.
The U.S. has never had enough coronavirus tests. Now a group of epidemiologists, economists, and dreamers is plotting a new strategy to defeat the virus.
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Well worth a look and then a download is: The Washington Post Review: I downloaded America’s first Coronavirus exposure app. You should too.
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Jerry Seelig, CEO
Fax: 310-841-2842
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