Connecticut asks nursing homes to accept COVID-19 positive patients to ease overburdened hospitals

In a new memo issued this month, the Connecticut Department of Public Health has asked nursing homes and other post-acute care facilities to accept COVID-19 positive patients discharged from hospitals as the state looks to alleviate overburdened hospitals.

The new guidance, released in a memo on January 6, says post-acute care facilities, a category of healthcare facilities that includes skilled nursing facilities, long-term care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and home health agencies, should take in patients discharged from a hospital "...regardless of COVID-19 status."

Negative test results would not be required for admittance into these facilities, with the memo stating that these facilities should already have quarantine policies in place.

"Discharge should not be held due to a pending SARS-CoV-2 test, as receiving PAC (post-acute care) providers should now have quarantine policies in place based on COVID-19 vaccination status," the memo states. "PAC providers should be equipped to safely care for individuals with active COVID-19 who are ready for discharge from acute care."

This new guidance could still give the state's 209 nursing homes the option to turn these patients away if they can't care for them, Matthew Barrett, the president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, told The Connecticut Mirror.

"The guidance that came out today, we don’t interpret it initially as in any way undermining a nursing home's very appropriate authority and ability to refuse a hospital admission, if the nursing home believes it is unable to meet the care needs of the resident due to staffing issues — and staffing issues are present all across the state and especially in Connecticut nursing homes," he told The Mirror.

"So we don't view the memo that came out today or the guidance document from the Department of Public Health in any way, shape, or form undermining that clear authority," he continued.

Spokesman for Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, Max Reiss, said if a nursing home refuses a patient, the hospital is responsible for finding another place for the person.

This change comes as "state data show more than 80% of Connecticut’s nursing homes are now reporting COVID-19 cases among either staff or residents, and booster shots among staff remain low," The Mirror wrote.

This new guidance also comes as 83 percent of Connecticut's inpatient hospital beds, including 81 percent of its intensive care unit beds, were occupied as of last week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Taking in COVID-19 positive patients into nursing homes was at the center of New York's nursing home scandal, in which former Governor Andrew Cuomo had nursing homes take in positive patients, which resulted in a large number of casualties. The District Attorney's Office in Manhattan decided last month not to file criminal charges against Cuomo over his handling of coronavirus deaths in the state's nursing homes.