Axne, AARP of Iowa call for mandatory testing in Iowa nursing homes, assisted living
Advocates for the elderly in Iowa say there needs to be more testing available in long-term care facilities and other senior living homes—and that the testing should be mandatory.
More than half of the state’s reported COVID-19 deaths are long-term care facility residents, according to state data. As of this writing, that's 413 out of the 777 who have died.
Those numbers are grim, which is why it's time to make testing required—and frequent— to protect some of the most vulnerable from coronavirus, said Brad Anderson, state director for the AARP of Iowa.
“Obviously we have a crisis on our hands and what is happening is absolutely tragic," he said.
The AARP of Iowa is asking for mandatory testing in Iowa’s long-term care facilities. Right now guidance form the Iowa Department of Public Health encourages testing regardless if anyone is showing symptoms, but doesn’t require it.
“When we have mandates rather than words of encouragement, I think that matters to people. So if we were to mandate testing, mandate PPE and find a way to enforce it, I think we would see some changes," Anderson said, referencing an Iowa Capital Dispatch report that found 11 people died at a nursing home in Dubuque, where workers are accused of working while ill and not being required to wear PPE.
Congresswoman Cindy Axne, a Democrat representing Iowa's third district, echoed those calls this week in a letter to Gov. Kim Reynolds, asking that the state boost for older Iowans living in nursing homes as well as in assisted living facilities and other congregate living facilities across Iowa
She’s also asking testing happening at these places be tracked weekly and that Reynolds creates a mobile Test Iowa testing site to test elderly Iowans who can’t access the testing program
“I am deeply concerned testing for Iowa’s seniors is not a priority, and current levels do not match the dire risk factors that this pandemic poses to them," Axne wrote in a letter to Reynolds dated Monday.
Right now the state only publicly reports outbreaks, which the state defines as three or more residents testing positive for COVID-19, in long-term care facilities, which are regulated differently than assisted living centers but still have seniors live in close quarters.
Anderson said the state should also release data about outbreaks in assisted or senior living facilities.
“We have to take additional steps for more transparency especially in the midst of a pandemic where contact tracing is more important than ever,” he said. “ A lot of time you have people who work in both the assisted living facilities and the nursing homes and so that’s how COVID-19 gets spread."
"When you don’t know what’s going on at that assisted living facility, that’s a problem,”
As of this writing, there are currently 15 long-term care facility outbreaks across the state with 377 staff and residents positive. Officials remove a nursing home from the "oubtreak" section website if it’s been 28 days since new infections emerge.
KGAN-TV Iowa's News Now reached out to the Iowa Department of Public Health about a full list of current and previous sites of outbreaks. A spokeswoman said they have that information, but it would take longer end of the day Wednesday to send.
As of Thursday morning, they data has not been received.