If you have a loved one in anursing home or long-term care facility, one of the biggest questions on your mind deals with how the facility in Missouri and Kansas are caring for your loved one during this time of COVID-19?

It has recently been announced that Federal Inspectors will temporarily halt routine inspections of nursing homes in Missouri and Kansas. The rationale is to have inspectors focus on infectious disease control to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus facility rather than general compliance.

The inspectors will not inspect nursing homes, home health, and hospice companies for at least three weeks. This is in response to reports by nursing homes that say they are having trouble meeting the inspection requirements and focusing on potential infection control.

This is understandable given these extraordinary times; clearly, preventing the spread of COVID-19 should be the top priority of the nursing home facilities and federal inspectors. However, it is still important that the standard regulations are met.

Just as with homeschooling and other tasks that we usually rely on professionals to handle, families with a loved one in a nursing home, need to be proactive in ensuring that the loved ones get the care and treatment they need. Below is a list of questions to ask the Nursing Home Director or board member of the facility.

• What procedures are in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the facility?
• Does the facility have staff members, CNAs, or nurses that work at other nursing home facilities? If so, what precautions are being taken to ensure that the staff does not spread the infectious disease?
• Ask for the last State and Medicare inspection. If there were deficiencies, have those been corrected, and how?
• Ask for a Care Plan meeting via Zoom or a conference call.
• During the call, ask how a are you ensuring that residents are getting the care they need?
  Has the nursing home increased staff to deal with the new demands caused by the coronavirus?
• What is the best way to communicate with loved ones during this time of isolation?

After talking to the nursing home staff, we recommend you follow up with an email to confirm all the answers you were given.

As always if you have any questions give Bautista LeRoy a call at 816-221-0382