Are Nursing Homes Prepared for Infection Surges?

We all remember the news clips of soldiers setting up cots in convention centers and exhausted nurses crying in parking lots. The world was focused on a hospital crisis, and rightfully so, because when it happens, it’s terrible. 

Unfortunately, hardly anyone cared about the tragedy happening just down the hall in America’s nursing homes. 

A virus isn’t picky. 

It doesn’t decide to go here and skip there. If there’s a crowded dinner table or a hall of people all passing each other, it jumps right in. Usually, a situation like this would be a slow burn, where a few people get sick each day. But in nursing homes, where you already have a bunch of people with weak immune systems, a contagious bug causes an explosion. 

It’s been years since we’ve seen those scary numbers climb on the news. 

Heck, we almost forgot it. 

But what if it happens again? Are the nursing homes prepared? Is it even possible to be prepared?

What Infection Control Actually Looks Like

Inside the nursing home, infection control looks like a bunch of little things being done every day, without fail. 

The number one thing is to pay attention. 

A good nursing home employee will tell you that residents are almost like family. And with family, you tend to notice things more often.

So, if you see a resident who’s almost always first for breakfast, starts showing up last, or stops showing up to breakfast suddenly, it’s clearly a red flag. You might not know the what or the why, but something’s going on. And, it’s not good. 

Staff will do routine check-ups (e.g, temp measuring, checking whether everyone has taken their pills throughout the day, etc.), but they also do some quiet observations (e.g., differences in eating/sleeping schedules/habits, and just sudden behavioral/mood changes).

Then there’s cleaning, which doesn’t mean making things look tidy. 

Cleaning means the stuff hardly anyone thinks about, like the walker everyone touches or the remote control in the living room. Germs hang out on everything people touch, so cleaning means scrubbing all of it until it’s truly clean. 

There are rules for the kitchen, as well. 

Trays can’t mix, and the food has to be kept at an appropriate temperature. You have to make sure the aide who helps one person with their lunch doesn’t move on to the next without washing up first. It sounds like a no-brainer, but when there aren’t enough staff, and you’re in a hurry, it’s anything but easy. 

You also have to think of supplies because you can’t simply run out to the store for masks and gloves when a wave hits. You have to have all of that stockpiled, and if you don’t, it will be chaos once the people get sick. 

Most homes have a person whose job is to track all this, and they’re called an infection prevention coordinator. 

That’s who spots patterns and raises concerns. They’re also the ones who push for changes to happen when things don’t work as they should. 

But that doesn’t work unless the management listens. 

The hard truth is that, when you don’t pay attention to the small stuff, infections show up to remind you that you should have. In the case of seniors, infections move fast, whether it’s a seemingly small one like a bladder infection or something more serious like sepsis risks from nursing home neglect. 

Where the System Still Falls Short

It seems strange that we’ve known about these issues for so long, and yet they keep happening. 

How come? As it turns out, that answer is pretty complicated. 

First, let’s talk about inspections. 

If the world were perfect, all nursing homes would get regular inspections and, if anything was wrong, inspectors would write it up. 

But inspectors are very busy, and some homes go years without a visit from them. And when families file complaints, they have to wait weeks or even months just to get a response. And by then, it could be too late. 

When inspectors finally show up and find issues, they write them down, but that doesn’t automatically mean the nursing home will face consequences. 

If you look at the worst homes, you’ll see that some of them repeat the same violations all the time and hardly anything ever changes. 

Of course, no conversation is complete without money, and money is absolutely a factor here. Generally speaking, nursing homes in the U.S. are grossly understaffed, but facilities with enough funds can still afford to have enough employees. The vast majority, however, doesn’t, and that forces them to cut corners. When a wave of infection hits, these are the places that collapse first. 

To be fair, some rules have changed in recent years, and some homes have improved because of that. But if you look closer, you’ll still see too many shared rooms and bathrooms. Too many hallways where germs travel.

So, do you think nursing homes are truly prepared for surges of infections? 

Because it sure doesn’t look like it. 

Conclusion

Being prepared isn’t something you do today, and then you’re set. 

It’s a daily project, and most of it is boring stuff, like washing hands, watching, speaking up when something’s wrong, checking supplies, etc. And even when everything is done right, a wave of infection will still cause trouble, although that trouble doesn’t necessarily have to turn into a tragedy as it does in the lower-end facilities. 

The moral of the story? 

The next bug will eventually come, and unless facilities learn from past mistakes, it’ll be chaos.