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Saturday, November 23, 2024

State-run veterans home tops all Iowa long-term care facilities in COVID-19 outbreaks

Iowa

The Iowa Veterans Home has experienced five outbreaks over the course of the pandemic, more than any other long-term care facility in Iowa. | facebook.com/iowaveteranshomepage/photos/4185641068222674

The Iowa Veterans Home has experienced five outbreaks over the course of the pandemic, more than any other long-term care facility in Iowa. | facebook.com/iowaveteranshomepage/photos/4185641068222674

Iowa has seen an increasing number of COVID-19-related outbreaks among nursing homes, with the state-run veterans home experiencing more outbreaks than any other long-term facility in Iowa state, Iowa Public Radio reported.

“Is it hard to be addministrator of a huge state-run nursing home when the previous administrator was likely fired for following federal regulations & then that fact was covered up in a half-truthful story on salaries? #iapolitics,” Bob Krause tweeted Aug. 10. 

More than 50 Iowa nursing homes have experienced a COVID-19 outbreak since the vaccine roll-out in December 2020, Iowa Public Radio reported.  

The Iowa Veterans Home has experienced five outbreaks over the course of the pandemic. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has recorded a total of 146 cases at the facility, 31 of which are resident infections, suggesting that state workers make up more than three-fourths of the total reported cases there, Iowa Public Radio reported.

Other establishments reporting high infection rates include Good Shepherd Health Center in Cerro Gordo County, Risen Son Christian Village in Pottawattamie County and The Good Samaritan Home of Ottumwa in Wapello County, Iowa Public Radio reported.

The high positivity rates have led some long-term care facilities to reinstate visitation restrictions. When counties reach a seven-day positivity rate of 10% and less than 70% of residents of a facility are vaccinated, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are able to restrict visitations, News 7 reported. 

"I think it saddens all of us when we have to do some restrictions," Western Home Communities Quality Assurance Officer Kathleen Niedert said, according to News 7. "That's not what we want to do, but it's what we must do to keep them safe." 

Niedert urged all local residents to consider getting the vaccine to decrease the severity of the outbreak. 

"We brought it down before," Niedert said, News 7 reported. "We can do this again. I'm very hopeful that we can do this again, but it's going to take all of us working together. It's not just healthcare workers that have to do this, all of us have to work on it."

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