Skilled Nursing News August 19, 2024
Allowing nursing home staff experiencing mild Covid symptoms to work, masked, appears to be better for resident welfare than furloughing infected workers.
Missing tasks outweighed increased harm from Covid transmission in a simulated scenario, according to a study published Monday morning in JAMA Network Open. Understaffing was associated with missed tasks, resident hospitalizations and deaths, costing an estimated $1.07 million per 100-bed facility; an additional $247,090 was missed with furloughed staff, based on data collected from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Allowing 75% of nursing home staff who were mildly ill with Covid to work averted most of these harms, the study found. About $85,470 was saved without worsening staff or resident Covid hospitalizations as well.
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