AMDA Pleased with Release of Coronavirus Commission Report, but There is Still Much Work to be Done

Columbia, MD – The administration’s Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes has released its final report, featuring 27 recommendations in the following 10 areas: testing and screening, equipment and PPE, cohorting, visitation, communication, workforce ecosystem, workforce reinforcement, technical assistance and quality improvement, facilities, and nursing home data.

AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine is pleased with the report’s recommendations. However, some important recommendations were not included in the final report and much work still needs to be done by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other government agencies to improve nursing home quality in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Commission was created to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the nursing home response to COVID-19. It met multiple times during the summer prior to the report’s release. Society President David A. Nace, MD, MPH, CMD, was appointed to the 25-person Commission."

"It was a great honor to participate on the Commission. We had extensive, thoughtful discussions around many important and challenging issues. I believe we came up with some valuable recommendations that will be extremely beneficial to our residents and staff members,” Dr. Nace said.

Society Executive Director Christopher E. Laxton, CAE, noted: “The Commission did some excellent work in short order. We were sorry to see that certain things were missing in the final report, mostly dealing with clinical leadership and expert oversight, and the importance of being able to identify facility leaders to aid public health responses, such as through a national medical director registry. The latter is something the Society has been working toward for a long time, and we will continue to push for its creation.

“We were also disappointed in CMS’s response following the report’s release. CMS seems to be saying that it had already completed all of the necessary steps even before the report was issued—its analysis appears to close the door on taking further action on the report’s many good recommendations. On the contrary, a great deal of work remains to be done, much of it involving agencies and partners well beyond CMS. The report provides a useful framework for this work for many years to come.”

A copy of the Commission’s report can be found here.

###

AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine is the only medical specialty society representing the community of over 50,000 medical directors, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other practitioners working in the various post-acute and long-term care (PALTC) settings. Dedicated to defining and improving quality, we advance our mission through timely professional development, evidence-based clinical guidance, and tireless advocacy on behalf of members, patients, families, and staff. Visit www.paltc.org for more information