Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
Gadfly has been obsessing about conditions in nursing homes, as you are well aware.
So, this is good news:
But maybe you’ve seen this enterprising full-page ad prominently displayed lately.
What would it take for you to trust a loved one to a long-term care facility these days?
A discount?
Wow, this is ballsy, isn’t it?
In the City report Friday, May 8, we learned that 7 long-term care facilities in Bethlehem have “outbreaks” of the coronavirus but which 7 we don’t know.
We learned that we know for sure that only 1 of however many long-term care facilities there are in Bethlehem is testing for the virus, and even then there was no detail about the nature and duration of the testing.
Almost no specific information about conditions in individual long-term care facilities has been made public.
As far as Gadfly knows that except for information on Gracedale and Cedarbrook, we are completely in the dark about conditions in individual long-term care facilities.
For the other facilities there are no public reports about where the number of cases are going up, where down, where the outbreak is under control, where not.
It seems almost certain that only a small number of Bethlehem facilities (if any) are significantly interacting with the state consultant over infection-control.
There seems to be no transparency.
How is the public to know where it is safe (or least unsafe) to entrust a loved one?
Gadfly realizes that there may be dire circumstances that dictate finding a facility for a loved one at this damnable moment in time.
But — is he the only one? — Gadfly finds it macabre for a facility to be offering discounts to promote admissions to sites that have in general been referred to as death traps.
Wouldn’t you make the pitch for admissions on your safety policies and record?
I find it “macabre” that state and local authorities refuse to make public how many deaths have occurred at individual nursing homes. As of today, approximately 1 in 26 nursing home residents in Pennsylvania has died from COVID-19. If you want to be upset, be upset with government for its utter lack of transparency. Demand answers from the governor, from county executives and from mayors. They were elected by the people to give us this information.