August 13, 2020
Nearly 4 of 5 Worcester County coronavirus deaths have taken place in long-term care facilities
Photo | Grant Welker
St. Mary Health Care Center in Worcester
By Grant Welker
An unusually large share of coronavirus deaths in Worcester County — nearly four out of five — have taken place in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes, according to state data.
That makes Worcester County an outlier in Massachusetts. At least 769 of the county's 1,007 deaths through Wednesday have taken place in such facilities, or 76%. Some facilities reported a range of deaths that could push the total slightly higher.
Statewide, deaths at such facilities make up 5,602, or 66%, of the state's 8,547 coronavirus fatalities reported through Wednesday by the state Department of Public Health.
In all, 41 such facilities in Worcester County have reported at least one coronavirus death, and eight have 30 or more. Statewide, 377 long-term care facilities have reported at least one coronavirus death.
The highest number, 38, has been reported at St. Mary Health Care Center, a facility on Queen Street in Worcester.
Older residents have been hit very disproportionately by the pandemic, especially in Massachusetts.
The rate of deaths is nearly five times higher for those 80 or older than any other age group, according to state Department of Public Health data. The average age of a coronavirus patient in Massachusetts has been 50. The average age of a hospitalized patient has been 68, and the average age of someone who dies from the virus is 82.
Image | WBJ Source: Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Data is shown in cases per 100,000.
Massachusetts is fourth in nursing home deaths, behind New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and third in cases per capita, behind New Jersey and Connecticut, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Massachusetts has the sixth most nursing home coronavirus cases, with 9,769. That's less than 9% of the state's 113,198 cases through Wednesday.
Nationwide, 43,231 deaths have been reported at nursing homes out of the 166,026 total U.S. coronavirus deaths, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported. Nursing homes have reported 164,055 confirmed coronavirus cases and another 102,531 suspected cases.
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Anonymous
August 13, 2020
“It’s Time to Abolish Nursing Homes” is a very timely article in the August 11, 2020 issue in The Nation. The article asks the question, “If three out of four Americans want to spend their final years at home, why do so many of us end up in institutional care? According to the 2018 AARP Survey, 75% of people over fifty want to remain in their homes. Compound that desire with the fear of COVID – 19. More than forty-percent of COVID-19 deaths in the United States, about 62,000 people as of the end of July were linked to long-term care facilities according to the Centers for Disease Control. That should stand as an indictment of the nursing home industry!
Given the significant capital investment and the workforce in nursing homes and the need to expand help for the elderly with the supports and services they need in the community, abolishing nursing homes, as the article advocates, is unlikely to occur in a few months or even years. We need to find more resources, more staff, and more providers to build the community infrastructure that is currently insufficient to serve the growing population of elderly. If our goal is to build a society where older people and those who support them in the community are treated with dignity, we need to build and fund the community support system. We should also look for ways to retrain institutional staff for home-based care and to develop and fund creative re-use or renovation of nursing homes for the future. Fortunately, there's a new advocacy consortium - Dignity Alliance Massachusetts - with more than 80 organizations and individual leaders who are pushing for this kind of positive change. (DignityMA5.org)
Richard T. Moore
Former State Senator
Uxbridge, MA
rmoore8743@charter.net
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