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Cuomo’s New Nursing Home Rules Still Keep Many Families From Visiting Loved Ones
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Feb 26, 2021
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Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP/Shutterstock
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Feb 26, 2021
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Ana Grullón can see the nursing home where her 98-year-old mother lives from the window of her Kingsbridge Heights apartment in the Bronx. But she can’t bring her homemade Sancocho, a hearty Dominican stew, to cheer her up. She can’t visit her at all.
Grullón’s mother, Catalina Perez, who has dementia and survived COVID-19, has had one in-person visit from a family member since last spring, according to Perez’s grandson Henry Grullón.
“We’re frustrated. We’re desperate. We’re still not gonna get to see her,” said Grullón who works with the group Voices for Seniors. His grandmother’s dementia has worsened over the last year; he said she barely looked up when they had a recent “window visit.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said.
Many families expected the ban on most nursing home visitations, in place since last March, to end along with a slate of other changes proposed last week by Governor Andrew Cuomo. He certainly made it sound that way in a recent statement.
"One of the most devastating aspects of this virus has been how it separated families from their loved ones, making an already difficult situation even harder to bear," Cuomo said. "Thanks to the dedication of New Yorkers, we're now at a point where we can begin to expand nursing home visitations.”
But, according to the fine print, families must abide by the same rule that had been in place, namely that any time a new COVID-19 case is detected at a nursing home, in-person visits are pushed back 14 days, meaning many families aren’t likely to see their loved ones any time soon. Of the 610 nursing homes in the state, about a third of them are eligible for visitation, according to the Health Department.
“We’re back to square one," Grullón said. His grandmother’s nursing home has 800 beds and two dedicated floors for COVID-19 patients. “We got a text right now. It got pushed back again to March 6."
Dr. Howard Zucker, the State’s Health Commissioner, addressed the new policy during a state budget hearing Thursday.
“Our hands are in some ways tied,” he said citing federal guidance. “If you have a case within 14 days you cannot go in. The challenge is – it’s still ending up in the nursing homes.”
Listen to Gwynne Hogan's report on WNYC:
New York State suspended nursing home visits at the height of the first wave and later reopened facilities for visits last July to visits if there had been no COVID-19 cases for 28 days.
Facing pressure from families, that window was reduced to 14 days last September. State health officials contend the policy, which is similar to guidance from the federal government, was in place to protect elderly residents who are most likely to suffer severe illness and death from COVID-19.
Nursing homes were devastated by the virus, with more than 15,000 deaths of long-term care facility residents since the start of the pandemic, about 30% of all deaths in New York State. The Department of Health has not yet returned a request for comment.
COVID-19 vaccines offer some light at the end of the tunnel. State data now show that 90% of nursing home residents have been vaccinated for COVID-19 while 63% of staff have received their shots. Nationwide, COVID infections in nursing homes have been steadily declining since vaccinations for staff and residents started in December.
Still, New York nursing homes are not out of the woods yet. Between February 15th and February 23rd, 133 nursing home residents died of COVID-19, according to a Gothamist analysis of state statistics.
For families struggling to connect with loved ones in nursing homes, the last year has felt like an eternity.
Jenine Ferrari’s father is in a nursing home for military veterans about 90 minutes away from her home in Forest Hills, Queens. Ferrari has had two in-person visits with him over the last year, one when staff thought he was dying of COVID-19, and one last November, the one time the facility made it through 14 days without a new COVID infection.
“That’s it,” she said. Now they’re back to FaceTime calls and occasional 15-minute visits from either side of a pane of glass.
“There’s no privacy. They always hold two window visits at a time so you’re competing with the person who’s standing six feet from you who’s also yelling,” she said. A staff member often hovers behind her father like an umpire, counting down the time they have left with their fingers. “It’s chaos. It’s like it’s prison.”
She’s noticed her father’s vocabulary and mobility worsen over the last year. His basic problem solving skills have declined, as well. If a phone rings, he doesn’t think to answer it, she said. Her father often refers to the facility as a prison too, in anxious phone calls with his daughter.
“‘When are you getting me out of here? What did I do? Why do you have me in here?’” he wonders, Ferrari said. “It rips at my heart.”
Tagged
COVID-19
pandemic
governor cuomo
nursing home
Gwynne Hogan
Gwynne Hogan is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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