The pandemic took a steep toll on Pennsylvania’s nursing homes.
By March 2021, about 12,600 deaths were reported in more than 1,500 long-term care homes statewide, according to The Covid Tracking Project at The Atlantic.
Brighton Rehabilitation & Wellness Center — site of one of the biggest covid outbreaks in the nation — accounted at the pandemic’s peak for 65% of Beaver County’s covid-19 cases and 90% of the county’s deaths.
“Covid hit, and we sort of found ourselves in a situation that no one expected or had ever experienced before,” said Chase Cannon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Affiliated Healthcare & Living Communities. “How do we control infection? How do we prepare going forward?”
Care facilities have spent the past five years figuring out the best answers to those questions.
They’re now focused on keeping enough personal protective equipment on hand. Staff undergo additional training to ensure they know best practices for curbing the spread of infectious disease and disinfecting surfaces.
Emergency preparedness is now top of mind, with some nursing homes hiring designated infectious disease specialists. Stricter protocols are in place for sanitization, testing sick residents, and communicating with patients and families during crises.
“That’s one of the silver linings,” Shamberg said. “We recognized the importance during the pandemic of having comprehensive emergency preparedness plans for future outbreaks.”
Covid protocols at care homes have evolved, he said. No longer are patients quarantined by themselves if they test positive. In most facilities, they’re now put into groups that separate the ill from the healthy. In many nursing homes, Shamberg said, there may be a separate wing or floor where covid-positive patients stay.
Even five years after the first wave of covid-19 infections, the virus still rears its head. But long-term care advocates said the virus isn’t circulating with the same virulence, leaving it more akin to seasonal influenza or RSV infections.
“While the pandemic may be over, covid is still very much a part of our daily operations,” Shamberg said.
Facilities continue to test patients and employees who may have contracted the virus, keeping affected patients and workers away from healthy ones. Masks remain commonplace, Shamberg said, though other measures like goggles and gloves largely have been phased out.
Also lingering are uncertainty and stigma around care facilities, said Susan Saxinger, executive director of the Pennsylvania Assisted Living Association.
“Personal care providers and assisted living providers did their absolute best to preserve life,” she said. “It’s something that will be an ongoing tactic to ensure that families and consumers know that they will always receive the highest quality of care.”
Nationally, she said, assisted living facilities have soaring satisfaction rates. More than 90% of residents in senior living facilities report high satisfaction, and more than 80% of their families think the model provides good value, according to a 2023 report from Argentum, a national trade association for companies managing senior living communities.