'It's All About Being Proactive': Pa. Nursing Homes To Take Precautions Amid COVID-19 Concerns
SCOTT TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) - When it comes to our parents and grandparents, we are blessed around here to have many of them still with us.
"Pennsylvania is the third oldest state in the entire country," says Pennsylvania Health Care Association President and CEO Zach Shamberg.
But with the overlay of the coronavirus threat, Allegheny County Health Department Medical Epidemiologist Dr. Kristen Mertz says, "I'm most worried about long-term care facilities and outbreaks there because the population is so vulnerable."
"It's all about being proactive," is the message Shamberg is getting out to his members who represent many of the nursing and long care facilities in Pennsylvania.
To a great degree, the precautions are the same as for the flu season, but there's added emphasis as everyone watches the illnesses and deaths in a facility in Washington State.
Shamberg says the experience out west is a message. "It just tells me that could very well happen in Pennsylvania," he says.
So facilities are being reminded: "You want to make sure that all commonly touched surfaces are cleaned, you want to make sure that staff are educated or re-educated on the use of personal protection equipment like googles masks, gowns and gloves," he says.
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Dr. Mertz says it goes beyond the facilities and residents. "We do recommend that long term care facilities put of signage that says 'if visitors have respiratory symptoms, please don't enter.'"
There's no sign on the door at ManorCare in Scott Township, but the sentiment is laid out in no uncertain terms on the home's website. If you are sick or could have been exposed, please visit some other time when you are in the clear.
Shamberg says that's what all the facilities are being encouraged to do.
"You want to make sure that if there are family members who are sick that they find alternative ways to visit their loved ones," he says. Like using FaceTime, Skype or phone calls.
The no visitation policy puts the burden on the family member to know what they have and when they got it. Allegheny Health Network Dr. Marc Itskowitz says the problem is.
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"The symptoms overlap between coronavirus and flu so you don't know," says Dr. Itskowitz.
Only a test can determine if the coronavirus is present, and until recently, only the CDC could do the testing.
Dr. Mertz says that's changing.
"Now they are starting to test at the state level so we should be able to get results in 24 hours."
The Chief of Emergency Medicine for UPMC Dr. Donald Yealy says everyone should err on the side of caution: "If you suspect you or a loved one has a COVID-19 exposure or infection, and you are not having high fever or breathing difficulties, call your primary care provider first."
That will allow your doctor to do some diagnostic work over the phone and keep you away from others who could get infected.
But Dr. Yealy adds, "If you have a high fever or breathing difficulties, go to your emergency department."
However, Dr. Mertz says to please call ahead.
"That gives providers time to prepare," she says.
And when you arrive, expect to be asked to wear a mask and perhaps be isolated from anyone else in the waiting room.
So far, no cases of COVID-19 have been found in Pennsylvania.
