After a yr of COVID-19 restrictions, Oklahoma’s long-term care amenities are starting to reopen to guests. It might nonetheless be weeks or months earlier than households are reunited.
Final March, nursing properties, assisted dwelling communities, veteran facilities and different long-term care amenities closed their doorways to guests to guard susceptible residents. Annual inspections had been halted to restrict the variety of folks coming and going. Even the state’s ombudsmen, resident advocates who examine and resolve complaints in opposition to amenities, had been shut out for months.
However outbreaks had been imminent.
Greater than 13,000 residents and employees have contracted COVID-19, in line with the state’s newest report. No less than 1,224 have died.
Following requests from Oklahoma Watch, the state well being division started releasing COVID-19 an infection and demise numbers by facility to the general public. However the numbers supplied little perception into why outbreaks had been hitting some amenities tougher than others.
For a yr, many amenities have been working at the hours of darkness permitting few outsiders in. Amongst them had been state well being division workers.
Surveyors inspected greater than 650 amenities statewide to make sure that employees had been following new an infection protocols — together with using protecting gear, hand hygiene and quarantine pointers — and recorded violations.
These stories are public. For households, they’ll present uncommon details about how nicely their family members are being cared for in the course of the pandemic. The state well being division posts the stories to its web site surveys.well being.okay.gov.
The location is searchable solely by facility, which limits broad searches. The stories are temporary, with little element when amenities are present in compliance. However particulars abound if violations are recorded.
The location additionally gives licensing and certification paperwork, possession stories, grievance investigations and communication from federal regulators.
Within the video beneath, I clarify what is out there on the state’s web site, the best way to discover it and what it means.
Whitney Bryen is an investigative reporter and visible storyteller at Oklahoma Watch with an emphasis on home violence, psychological well being and nursing properties affected by COVID-19. Contact her at (405) 201-6057 or [email protected]. Observe her on Twitter @SoonerReporter.
The submit What You Don’t Know and Ought to About Nursing Residence Care appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.
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