By Nikki Hutchison

Special to the Chronicle

Covid-19 has devastated nursing home and long-term care residents.

It has cost the lives of more than 84,000 US residents and staff.

That includes more than 1,367 South Carolinians, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.

Federal officials have been slow to respond.

No state officials have done enough to stem the loss of life.

AARP has called for:

- A 5-point plan to protect nursing home and long-term care residents,

- Public reporting of nursing home covid-19 cases and deaths.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data is self-reported by nursing homes.

AARP has created a Nursing Home covid-19 Dashboard to provide 4-week snapshots of the virus’ infiltration into and impact on nursing homes.

Nursing homes in every state reported shortages of PPE.

This ranges from 8% of facilities in the best-performing states to 60% in the worst-performing states. 

From August 24 to Sept. 20, South Carolina had:

• 5.8 covid cases per 100 residents
• [According to DHEC, SC has 157,970 confirmed cases and probable cases 6,639]
• 1.2 covid deaths per 100 residents
• [According to DHEC, SC has 3,449 confirmed deaths and 212 probable deaths.]
• 4.1 staff cases per 100 residents
• 34.1% of nursing homes without a 1 week supply of PPE
• 35.2% of nursing homes with staffing shortages

Full data for South Carolina, and a comparison to national data for each indicator, is available at https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/pdf/2020/10/southcarolina-nursing-home-dashboard-october-2020-aarp.pdf .

More resources and information on COVID-19 and nursing homes can be found at aarp.org/nursinghomes and at aarp.org/sc .

Nikki Hutchison is Associate State Director for Advocacy with AARP South Carolina