Long Term Care & COVID-19

What Are the Challenges?

Covid 19 has had such an impact on all of us in so many ways. Our way of life has been challenged and our lives have been forever changed.  So many people sick and dying.  So much strife in the media.  Political fighting, everyone with their own agenda.  So many lies and deceit we don’t know who or what to believe anymore.  Our borders are closed for trade and travel.

We seem to have turned on each other and even if things start to normalize, I am not sure many of us hold out much hope for things to go back to the way they were.  If they do, it won’t be for quite some time.

How Will Covid-19 Impact Medical-Legal Liability?

In the midst of all of this, on the ground level, we all try to get on with life as best we can.  For me, that means handling a company that deals with nursing home negligence.

In my circle of attorneys, we frequently discuss nursing home liability as it relates to post Covid.  How this virus will impact our clients. This is from the standpoint of both the plaintiff and the defense.

You see, the legislation wants to put a blanket law in place absolving healthcare workers of liability due to the Covid 19 pandemic.  While that sounds great on the front end, on the back end, what happens to the poor patients who suffer at the hands of negligent healthcare workers who then simply want to use the Covid 19 virus as the convenient excuse it has become?

• How do we handle the global system failure due to short staffing as a result of Covid?
• Who is at fault?

If the nursing homes can’t get staffing because workers are sick, or too scared to come to work, who’s fault is it really that the patient suffers?

• The flipside of that is what about the patient who suffers gruesome pressure ulcers as a result of not being turned and repositioned?
• Is it their fault they were not cared for properly?
• How do they get compensated for the pain and suffering as a result of what would otherwise be negligent care?

Challenges for Long Term Care Facilities

Health Affairs recently published a great article outlining some of the issues we are currently facing looking at the long term care workforce challenges such as fragmented regulations, absenteeism, wages, minimum staffing levels, and the federally mandated lockout period with regards to the ability for nursing homes to conduct CAN training when their civil penalty is greater than $10,000 which can continue even after the state has certified the issue has been resolved.

As with anything, we need to find a healthy balance.  It will certainly be interesting to see how the courts begin to rule on some of these issues in the near future as Covid related negligence and death cases start to be brought forward.