Issue Position: Fighting for Our Nursing Home Residents

Issue Position

Earlier in my career, I helped lead the fight to keep Orange County's Valley View Nursing Home county-owned and county-run. We fought against privatization and showed how with proper management, the county could afford and keep providing quality health care to its residents. Now, the county is running a surplus in its operation of Valley View.

The residents of our nursing homes are among our most vulnerable populations. These mostly older residents live in close quarters, share many communal areas, and, in some cases, share rooms with other residents. For these reasons and more, nursing homes are ideal breeding grounds for any virus, particularly one that is as deadly and as easily transmitted as COVID-19.

On March 25, 2020, the Department of Health issued a directive making it illegal for nursing homes to deny the admission of residents solely on the basis of a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. This directive made an already vulnerable population at even greater risk.

I spoke out about this outrageous action and wrote to the Health Department's Commissioner.

Since then, the State has modified this policy and no longer requires the admittance of COVID positive individuals if the facility involved is not properly equipped to handle them.

Then in May, the Governor issued an Executive Order requiring the testing of staff of nursing homes for COVID-19 but made no mention for the testing of the residents.

To correct this omission, I wrote a bill to require nursing home residents to be tested on a monthly basis during the COVID-19 emergency and after a staff member or another resident tests positive. This monthly requirement would continue until 60 days after the state of emergency has ended. After 60 days after the state of emergency has ended, should a staff member or resident test positive for COVID-19, all residents must be tested within 7 days and again 30 days later. This would ensure that the virus has not spread throughout the nursing home or residential health care facility.

I will continue to speak out and fight in behalf of our nursing home residents. If we don't, who will.

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