Nursing Homes Scramble to Enable Televisits Amid Coronavirus

Two major industry associations representing nursing homes — the American Health Care Association and LeadingAge — said in emails that their members are working hard to connect families with residents. 

Nursing homes have emerged as a central front in the war on the coronavirus. Washington State’s Life Care Center of Kirkland was an early epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, as the coronavirus infected two-thirds of its residents and dozens of staff members. The center’s outbreak has been linked to 35 deaths.

As of last week, 147 nursing homes across 27 states had at least one resident with COVID-19, out of more than 15,000 homes nationally, according to CMS.

Amid these health challenges, some advocates for older adults say some nursing homes are scrambling to catch up to tele-visit technology. Certain nursing homes have struggled even to provide telephone access to residents, while others do not have televisions in rooms, they said. Now, tele-visits are the new frontier.

“Even one tablet could do the trick, if someone from the facility could take it from resident to resident while keeping it sanitary,” said Michael Dark, staff attorney with San Francisco-based California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, in an email.

Richard J. Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, an advocacy group, said mobile devices can “provide a lifeline for residents and families emotionally.”

Relatives can ask, “Did you eat today? How are you feeling? Did anyone check your blood pressure today?” Mollot wrote in an email. But he added that most nursing home residents have some cognitive problems, and many have significant dementia, making tele-visits difficult.

Eric Carlson, an attorney with Justice in Aging, has heard mixed reviews of how effectively nursing homes have embraced the use of mobile devices.

“I hear that in some facilities, they’re making a good faith effort,” he said. “But in others, due to staffing shortages and priorities or the lack of technology, in those facilities making these connections falls by the wayside.”

Families take the lead

Even when virtual visits are successful, they can’t always enable the kind of care relatives provide for nursing home residents.

“Families help with eating. They go in and bathe their loved ones,” said Patricia Hunter, the long-term care ombudsman for the state of Washington. “It’s not unusual to see a husband go in and comb a wife’s hair and care for her.”

Hunter oversees a program of advocates for residents of adult care facilities and says her office is raising money to purchase phones, iPads and other tech so long-term care residents can communicate with loved ones and doctors.The American Health Care Association is encouraging people to donate phones, tablets and other devices to aid residents, through a new program called #CareNotCOVID.

LeadingAge, which represents not-for-profit nursing homes, pointed to its members’ activities around the country:

• Gurwin Jewish Family of Healthcare Services, in Commack, New York, has launched a “GranGram” program that accepts relatives’ video messages and shows them to residents.
  
  
• Piedmont Crossing, in Thomasville, North Carolina, celebrated a resident’s 100th birthday and used FaceTime to involve her daughters.
  
  
• Presbyterian SeniorCare Network, in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, is encouraging people in the community to send notes and cards to residents and employees.

But family members continue to take the lead in connecting with nursing home residents.

Gene Casanova sprang into action when he learned that new COVID-19 rules meant he could no longer visit his wife at her San Jose, California, nursing home.

The retired electrician, 78, just ordered two new top-of-the-line Samsung cell phones so that the couple can communicate, Casanova said.

“Those two phones will put us face-to-face again,” he said.

After a rough first week, Kristen Smith is conferring with her father, Carl, by phone, aided by staff members who help him make the calls.

“Now he’s listening to the president. He’s settling into the new regime,” Smith said, although she still worries about his cat.