Five governors besides Cuomo who sent COVID-19-positive patients into nursing homes

.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York was not the only state leader to have directed nursing homes to admit patients who had been hospitalized for COVID-19. Governors from Michigan, California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, all Democrats, enacted similar policies last year as fears grew that hospitals would be overwhelmed with new patients and too few healthcare providers.

Virus Outbreak New York
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks to a member of the National Guard at a COVID-19 vaccination site in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)


New York: Gov. Cuomo issued a directive on March 25 to nursing homes and long-term care facilities that prohibited them from discriminating against residents who had tested positive for the coronavirus. Though it was not an order, nursing homes in New York interpreted it that way and took in COVID-19-positive residents until the directive was invalidated in May.

Cuomo’s office has been accused of manipulating data reflecting deaths among nursing home residents by excluding the numbers of those who died after being transferred to hospitals. A leaked call with Cuomo’s aide Melissa DeRosa and state Democrats confirmed that the administration had undercounted fatalities to preserve its reputation.

A TIMELINE OF THE CUOMO NURSING HOME CONTROVERSY

Virus Outbreak Michigan
In a photo provided by the Michigan Office of the Governor, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the state during a speech in Lansing, Mich., Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. The governor said her administration will announce the further loosening of Michigan’s coronavirus restrictions in coming days. She did not elaborate much in a Wednesday news conference, in which she again pressed the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass a multibillion-dollar COVID-19 relief funding plan. (Michigan Office of the Governor via AP)


Michigan: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a similar order on April 15. The Whitmer administration ordered that a long-term care facility “must not prohibit admission or readmission of a resident based on COVID-19 testing requirements or results.” The policy was renewed three times until it was rescinded in July 2020.

Gavin Newsom
California Gov. Gavin Newsom takes questions from the media during a visit to a mobile vaccination site at Ramona Gardens Recreation Center in Los Angeles, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. California’s new system of delivering and scheduling coronavirus vaccines is being rolled out in select counties. It’s the first step in Newsom’s plan to smooth out what has been a disjointed vaccine rollout hampered by limited national supply. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)


California: Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration ordered on April 10 that “patients hospitalized, or receiving treatment at an alternate care site, with COVID-19 can be discharged to a [skilled nursing facility] when clinically indicated.”

The policy mandated testing for patients who are discharged from a hospital to a skilled nursing facility so that a coronavirus-positive patient could be isolated from other residents.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Marijuana New Jersey
This photo, provided by the New Jersey Governor’s Office, shows Gov. Phil Murphy as he has signed into law legislation to set up a recreational marijuana marketplace, decriminalize cannabis, and loosen penalties for underage possession of the drug and alcohol, Monday, Feb,, 22, 2021, in Trenton, NJ. (Edwin J. Torres/ NJ Governor’s Office, via AP).


New Jersey: Gov. Phil Murphy approved a directive from state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli that said no patient can be denied admission or readmission to a nursing home “solely based on a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19.” A patient should not be discharged until diagnostic test results have confirmed whether he or she should be discharged. However, nursing homes cannot require a discharged patient to undergo a COVID-19 test in order to be admitted to the nursing home as long as doctors conclude that the patient is “medically stable.”

“We did advise long-term care facilities to readmit their residents … if they had appropriate PPE and appropriate staffing and the ability … to separate COVID-19 patients from non-COVID-19 patients,” Persichilli said. “If the long-term care facility was not able to do that, they should not have readmitted.”

Pennsylvania Budget
FILE – In this Nov. 4, 2020, file photo, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf adjusts his face mask to protect against COVID-19 during a news conference in Harrisburg, Pa., regarding the counting of ballots in the 2020 general election. Facing a deep, pandemic-inflicted budget deficit, Gov. Wolf will ask lawmakers for billions of dollars funded by higher taxes on Pennsylvania’s huge natural gas industry for workforce development and employment assistance to help the state recover. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)


Pennsylvania: Gov. Tom Wolf enacted a mandatory admission policy in March, saying that “nursing care facilities must continue to accept new admissions and receive readmissions for current residents who have been discharged from the hospital who are stable.” The policy was enacted to protect hospitals from being overwhelmed by the volume of COVID-19 patients.

The order added that nursing home admissions “may include stable patients who have had the COVID-19 virus.”

Related Content

Related Content