Management of the Care Homes for Older Adults During COVID-19 Pandemic

Authors

  • Daniel Pavlovski Department of Sciences, University “Mother Teresa”, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia Author
  • Ognen Aleksoski Department of Sciences, University “Goce Delcev”, Shtip, Republic of North Macedonia Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26417/171uln56h

Keywords:

older adults, management, care homes and COVID-19

Abstract

The older adults are one of the categories of the population that is particularly vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus, both in terms of infection rate and mortality rate. Therefore, in the age of a global pandemic, is particularly complex the management of the care homes, which can become hotspots of the virus. Managing of the care homes for older adults during COVID-19 pandemic is facing with number of challenges, the most important are: 1) lack of protocols and guidelines for care homes with clear and applicable measures and activities; 2) lack of measures to deal with the economic consequences of the crisis. However, despite these shortcomings, the managers of care homes in the Republic of North Macedonia, until the end of April, successfully dealt with the pandemic and did not allow the spread of the virus among care homes residents and employees. The data shows that in 18 from total 30 care homes, have only five registered cases positive for COVID-19 (2 care homes residents and 3 employees), which is 0.33% of the total registered cases in the country. This shows that the management and employees have taken appropriate measures and activities in order to protect against the spread of the virus in the care homes in the Republic of North Macedonia.

References

American Geriatrics Society, (2020). American Geriatrics Society (AGS) policy brief: COVID-19 and assisted living facilities. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. May 2020: jgs.16510. doi: 10.1111 / jgs.16510;

American Geriatrics Society, (2020). American Geriatrics Society policy brief: COVID-19 and nursing homes. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2020; 68 (5): 908–11. doi: 10.1111 / jgs.16477;

Arons MM, Hatfield KM, Reddy SC, Kimball A, James A, Jacobs JR et al. (2020). Presymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections and transmission in a skilled nursing facility. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020; 382: 2081– 90. doi: 10.1056 / nejmoa2008457;

British Geriatric Society (2020). Managing the COVID-19 pandemic in care homes for older people. Link: www.bgs.org.uk/COVID-19;

Comas-Herrera A, (2020). Early evidence on preventing spread of COVID-19 in care homes: isolation of residents and staff who are symptomatic vs. suspected of COVID-19. Link: https://ltccovid.org/2020/04/01/early-evidence-on-preventing-spread-of-covid-19-in-care-homes-isolation-of-residents-and-staff-who-are-symptomatic-vs-suspected-of-covid-19/;

Comas-Herrera A, Zalakaín J, Litwin C, Hsu AT, Lane N, Fernández JL. (2020). Mortality associated with COVID-19 outbreaks in LTCFs: early international evidence. International Long-Term Care Policy Network. Link: https://ltccovid.org/2020/04/12/mortality-associated-with-covid-19-outbreaks-in-care-homes-early-internationalevidence;

Osterdahl M, Lee K, Ni Lochlainn M, Wilson S, Douthwaite S, Horsfall R et al. (2020). Detecting SARS-CoV-2 at point of care: preliminary data comparing loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) to PCR. SSRN Electronic Journal. 2020. doi: 10.2139 / ssrn.3564906;

Gardner W, States D, MD, Bagley N (2020). The Coronavirus and the Risks to the Elderly in Long-Term Care, Journal of Aging & Social Policy, Volume 32, 2020 - Issue 4-5: Older Adults and COVID-19: Implications for Aging Policy and Practice. Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08959420.2020.1750543;

Goldberg SA, Pu CT, Thompson RW, Mark E, Sequist TD, Grabowski DC. (2020). Asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 in 97 patients at a skilled nursing facility. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2020.doi: 10.1016 / j.jamda.2020.05.040;

Graham NSN, Junghans C, Downes R, Sendall C, Lai H, McKirdy A et al. (2020). SARS-CoV 2 infection: clinical features and outcome of COVID-19 in United Kingdom nursing homes. Journal of Infection. 2020; 5:38. doi: 10.1016 / j.jinf.2020.05.073;

Guery R, Cécile D, Noëlle B, Nael V, Castain L, Raffi F et al. (2020). Limited effectiveness of systematic screening by nasopharyngeal RT-PCR of medicalized nursing home staff after a first case of COVID-19 in a resident. Medicine and Infectious Maldives. Link: doi: 10.1016 / j.medmal.2020.04.020;

Institute for Public Health of the Republic of North Macedonia (2020).

Links: a. https://www.iph.mk/sostojba-so-covid-vo-svetot-zaklucno-so-2-3-2020

b. https://www.iph.mk/covid19-31-3-2020/

c. https://www.iph.mk/covid-3042020/

d. https://www.iph.mk/zdravo-i-aktivno-stareenje-za-vreme-na-covid19/

Lee SH, Son H, Peck KR. (2020). Can post-exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19 be considered as an outbreak response strategy in long-term care hospitals? International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. April 2020; 105988. doi: 10.1016 / j.ijantimicag.2020.105988;

Onder, G.; Rezza, G.; Brusaferro, S. (2020). Case-Fatality rate and characteristics of patients dying in relation to COVID-19 in Italy. JAMA 2020;

Rita Petretto, D. and Pili, R. (2020). Ageing and COVID-19: What Is the Role for Elderly People? Geriatrics - Open Access Journal, Basel Switzerland;

Shea YF, Lam HY, Yuen JKY, Cheng KCA, Chan TC, Mok WYW et al. (2020). Maintaining zero COVID-19 infection among long term care facility residents in Hong Kong. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. May 2020. doi: 10.1016 / j.jamda.2020.05.042;

World Health Organization, (2020). Infection Prevention and Control guidance for Long -Term Care Facilities in the context of COVID-19. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331508/WHO-2019-nCoV-IPC_long_term_care-2020.1-eng.pdf;

World Health Organization, (2020). Preventing and managing COVID-19 across long-term care services: Policy brief, 24 July 2020

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Policy_Brief-Long-term_Care-2020.1;

World Health Organization, (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Situation Report – 40. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200229-sitrep-40-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=849d0665_2;

World Health Organization, (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Situation Report – 71. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200331-sitrep-71-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=4360e92b_8;

World Health Organization, (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Situation Report – 101. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200430-sitrep-101-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=2ba4e093_2.

Downloads

Published

2021-12-30

How to Cite

Pavlovski, D., & Aleksoski, O. (2021). Management of the Care Homes for Older Adults During COVID-19 Pandemic. European Journal of Social Science Education and Research, 8(3), 16-29. https://doi.org/10.26417/171uln56h