(Snippets from the frontline)
COVID-19: Nursing homes – vacation spot for seniors
Have you ever had a friend or loved one say…”gee…I can’t wait to get older so I can go to a nursing home!” Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), rebranded nursing homes, will never escape their reputation for bodily smells and agonizing sounds of aging.
Escalation of hospital and insurance profits, and diminished government funding led SNFs to become the downhill-slide repository of aging Americans unable to be cared for at home.
As a geriatric doctor and whistleblower for decades, my voice has constantly been silenced. Now, COVID-19 has raised it’s coronal tentacles disproportionally affecting nursing home residents.
Our mother fell last year requiring a short stay in a SNF for rehabilitation. Her admission was not threatened by a virus, and her only complaint was their cable was limited, as they did not get Dodger games. (Each night I had to give her play-by-play, inning-by-inning recaps!) She was lucky, and is now thankful she is not in a SNF “hotspot.”
How we care for our elders is a reflection of who we are as a nation.
Hopefully, COVID-19 has taught us worthy lessons improving SNFs, even if it starts by 
upgrading cable.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
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