Are nursing homes required to inform family members if there are Covid-19 infected residents in the home where their loved ones reside?

Well guess I got my answer, this morning I read in the local paper that my sisters nursing home has 2 employees, 2 residents, and one death.
Needless to say I was flabbergasted to put it mildly!

In NY our governor signed a MANDATE that nursing homes take covid positive people to help ease the burden on the hospitals. That happened on March 26. On March 12th I was told I could no longer visit my mom "for her safety." On April 7th my mom died. The social worker, Jenna, who's young enough to be my child, called to tell me I had 30 days to get my mom's belongings. I knew they had both confirmed and suspected cases because a NP who came in from my mom's insurance had told me. When I asked whether they had sanitized my mom's belongings in light of the covid cases, she said, "We don't have any confirmed cases because we don't do testing." She said that like she'd won.

When I asked how many people has died so far she simply said. "I don't want to give you that information."

My governor's name is Andrew Cuomo. When asked about the numbers of covid nursing home deaths at his briefing yesterday, he said he would not disclose or discuss based on privacy issues. He even said, "If your parent died you would not want their picture on the front page of the paper." He totally skated around the question! The reporter clarified, "I'm just talking about numbers." He replied, "I know," and moved on to the next question.

My governor has blood on his hands.

Not sure if they are, but in my honest opinion they should divulge that information.

A resident at the nursing home my brother is in died of the virus. This man had a roommate. I do not know who it is or if the roommate was active and out and about in the community room. As soon as the man passed I got a call. They immediately had the national guard come and test everyone. My brother tested positive. He isn't having any symptoms. His health is very compromised and I am holding my breath he will get by this.
I am his POA and notified all his kids, who never call or visit. I felt maybe they will now and that would make my brother happy. So, my nephew started calling the nursing home demanding information on my brother's status. When he didn't get his way he put his mother on the phone to the nurse! We are talking about a man in his 30's... anyway, The nurse called me to tell me and ask for permission to give out his info. I said no. She thanked me and said she was hoping I would say that. They can not handle the calls coming in. The nurses have to shed their protective gear to answer the call and it takes up a lot of their valuable time. The nurse said it is best to have one person call and they can relay the information. I completely understand this. It is difficult to get through to anyone there. Now they hired a person to come in on Tuesdays and Thursdays to just connect people to their loved ones rooms.
My brother is in a private room and they said that is to his advantage. He is used to being restricted to his room because of his leg infections - so he is able to cooperate on that level.
This is a horrible, fearful time. My biggest pain is knowing if my brother's condition goes south he will be alone and I won't be able to be with him. He will get scared. So, I am praying for everyone to get through this.
Good luck to everyone, stay safe and well.

Not sure if they are required, but I would definitely ask how many they have on a weekly basis. They don't have to tell you who has it, but they should certainly be transparent enough to tell you the problem is in their facility. If they were lax on the cleaning before, you may soon see your facility on the news. - If she shares a room with someone, I would be asking. If they refuse to tell you about the person in other bed -- hopefully you made friends with family of that person so you can call each other from time to time to see how things are going.

I don't know if my mother's past nursing home handles COVID-19 notifications, but my mother developed a stage 4 ulcer while at a nursing home in Simsbury, Connecticut . They NEVER notified me about the severity of the ulcer! The ulcer became septic, and ultimately took my mother's life.

All I can say is that in Louisiana they are no longer listing the names of facilities with Covid cases. There are too many facilities infected to list them all individually on the news.

The number of infections and deaths in facilities are not being reported anymore on our news. I believe that the last report that I read in our newspaper stated that it is in over 90 of our facilities now.

We now have over 21,000 cases and over 1000 deaths reported in our state. I hope and pray that the end is near for us. We have many people being treated with this horrible coronavirus.

I am praying for all of us everywhere to see an end in sight soon. Blessings to all 💗.

I do not know the answer to the exact question you ask. I only offer my experience. There is a staff member that tested positive in my mother's facility. The facility sent my mother's POAs a letter saying this, but with no details. Since we are in a small town, I was able to find out that it was a certain staff member, which my mother was exposed to on a daily basis. My mother is coughing, vomiting, hoarse, clearing her throat, spitting up food, while on the phone with me. She has clearly illustrated to the staff, during our phone call, that she is obviously ill. The only response by staff has been to take her temp twice a day. If I call expressing any polite concern I am told they are unable to communicate with me as I am not her POA. My mother long ago had her brother and sister agree to be her POA, although we were very close and I had interacted with her doctors for years on her behalf, I did not live in her small town and she did not want to force me to have to come back there. Totally misunderstanding what a POA was in the first place, now she has two, neither of which want to spend much of their time or effort into care. Now legally, her POA, of course, do not have to inform me of anything, and do so when and if they feel like it. So I am grateful they bothered to inform me by snail mail at all. They refuse to text, use email, or use the phone to contact anyone. Everything is done by mail. So my mother will probably be dead for days before anyone tells me. But I have accepted this is the consequences of her poor decisions she made many years ago, and there isn't much I can do. The latest proof of this: The virus is common in their town, and I was very concerned about the "what-ifs", like, what if my moms POAs were unable to be contacted (sick, or caring for their immediate family, etc.) and Mom needed to go to hospital or needed treatment? The answer is that Mom is made a ward of the state and there is nothing I can do about it, as her facility refuses to have an emergency contact if her POAs are unable to do their duties. So, please, no comments, I am not wanting advice and only wished to express what I know, which consists only of my experience. My input regarding your exact question is: Your status as a POA or not with your LO, local laws; County, Federal and facility policy will determine if you are supposed to be informed. And luck, timing and staff integrity will probably influence whether you actually ARE informed, or not.

My mother is in a Sunrise Assisted Living in NJ, in the NYC metropolitan area. They have been very transparent notifying us the day a resident tested positive. They send an update every few days as to the number of residents and staff who have tested positive. Her building was quarantined since March 13 because of the regular flu. Once Covid come into the building all residents have to stay in their rooms; meals are delivered to them, activities directors come and visit and set up FaceTime or Skype so they can communicate with family. Unfortunately, I do not believe all facilities are being as aboveboard.

Our premier in Ontario has said we must put an "iron ring of protection" around retirement and nursing homes but too many administrators are waiting until mandated to act, only this week in nursing homes all staff were finally given direction to wear masks during their whole shift (I'm not sure if this applies to retirement homes/AL). There seems to be a huge disconnect between words and actions, despite repeated assurances that all front line healthcare workers MUST be tested I heard of someone this weekend who was turned away and told testing wasn't necessary, just go ahead and self quarantine - this a person who was sent home from work due to sore throat and fever 😖

I was notified by phone 2 weeks ago that there is a case of the virus at my Aunts nursing home. They refused to tell me whether it was a resident or staff member. I asked if the staff are wearing masks and gloves? They said if a resident is showing symptoms they are isolated and staff are wearing the proper PPE. In other words no for everyone else. Very frustrated in Detroit.

In New York, facilities are required to notify all families if someone (resident or staff) tests positive in their facility. However, there are so few tests being performed in our County, I'm not sure they would actually know if someone was positive. Just yesterday, it was reported on the front page of our local paper that a resident at another facility in the area tested positive so it's not being kept quiet. It's more of a concern with testing so they know that someone is positive. It's a constant worry for sure!

So sorry to anyone with a loved one in a place during this. If there’s a bright side to my husbands death it’s that he died at the end of December and doesn’t have to go through this. I’m also relieved I’m not going through with someone in a facility during this. I still have my 91 year old mom to care for but she’s in her house until I absolutely can’t leave her there. Anyway our governor just made it so they have to identify them. Here is the article. Best of luck to you!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/new-ohio-guidelines-will-name-nursing-homes-with-positive-covid-19-cases/amp/

Check your local county's regulations about informing family about contagious disease. Meanwhile, I would assume that there is at least 1 client with COVID-19 in every facility. COVID-19 is easily passed to others and not all people have "fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath" when they experience the illness. Unless every client and worker is tested frequently, you and management will never know for sure. There are not enough tests to do this level of detection anywhere. We save the tests for those with the most severe forms of illness - those that need respiratory assistance in a hospital environment - and those with known exposure to another person who has tested positive.

I'm also interested to know. I was contacted independently on Friday by an employee at my grandfather's rehab who I've come to trust who shared with me that there are at least two COVID-positive patients in my grandfather's wing. He said he would get in a lot of trouble for telling me, but that he wouldn't be able to sleep at night if he didn't inform me. I've not heard a peep from the facility itself, so they seem to be taking the hush-hush route. It's extremely disappointing since we've been in contact with my grandfather's normal residence (assisted living - he was in rehab for PT) and they've been very forthcoming about cases there, and steps being taken. Such a scary time.

Assume someone is positive, assume at least 1 staff member is positive.
What would you do differently? If you knew no one was positive would you not wear a mask? would you not wash your hands? Assume that you have been infected by the person that opened the door minutes before you did, the one that took that jar of mayo off the shelf at the store then decided they did not want it and put it back.
Due to HIPAA laws they can not inform anyone about anyone's condition.

Interesting but where I live a judge just ruled that the Health Department is to notify 911 dispatch of positive people so that it can be flagged if a 911 call comes in so responders are aware. However the information is purged after the quarantine time has passed.

Years ago, way back in the 80s I asked my new Dentist when filling out a medical history form why along with the questions, are you diabetic, have you had Rheumatic fever and all the rest why not ask are you HIV positive. His response was..."I assume everyone is positive I take the same precautions with all my patients"..... Maybe take the same approach and assume more are positive for COVID19 than not. I am sure many people would test positive but have no symptoms, I bet there are people that may have thought they had the flu but may have in fact had mild cases of COVID19.

My mom is in memory care in an ALF. They had an outbreak my mom tested positive. Thankfully she didn’t have many symptoms. Nothing more than a cough and a 99 degree temperature. She’s doing well but the guilt is unbelievable. FaceTiming her a couple times a week she doesn’t really know what’s going on and why I can’t visit. I haven’t seen her since lockdown march 11. I’m sure we are all in the same situation. They are all quarantined there and Im Sure she’s lonely. Thoughts have crossed my mom to get her out but I don’t want to get sick plus it’s too hard to care for her and not sure when she would be able to go back. What a horrible situation.

And there is the concern for privacy for the patient. You should be able to find out what facilities have positive cases. But, remember the difficulty with obtaining tests and the reliability of them.

I can speak from experience here about notifying family when staff are positive as my MIL is in an AL/MC in NY and my SIL just texted my husband last night to let him know that an employee of the AL/MC tested Co-V2 positive.
I don’t know if the resident’s status is reported to the other residents b/o HIPPA. Precautions should be made to protect the other residents by the AL/NH staff.

Here in BC nursing homes with outbreaks are named. I believe the same is happening in Ontario.

I’m sure some facilities will the to keep it hush hush but someone will talk! Either the health dept will announce it, or employees will let the cat out of the bag. My county just had its first COVID case in a care facility and the facility itself made the announcement.

Yes, each facility is required to report cases of communicable illnesses like COVID19 directly to the state. The info is then published publicly. Each day in Colorado, a list of residential care communities with outbreaks is published, along with the number of cases & number (if any) of deaths. So far, we have 54 homes with outbreaks here. Obviously, the facilities DO notify the families and/or POAs of the situation if an outbreak should occur. It's against the law to keep such a thing 'hushed up' since a person can quickly die and THEN what??

My mother lives in a Memory Care ALF. Her doctor called me about 10 days ago to install a care plan in case she contracts the virus; what to do? Have her taken to the hospital or call in hospice and have her isolated in her apartment & given comfort care? I chose option #2; at 93 with lots of health issues and a daily plea to die, it'll be hospice and stay in the facility for my mother, should an outbreak happen and she contract the virus. We'll allow nature to take it's course in such a scenario, which I hope does not happen.

Doctors should be calling POAs to install care plans for those who live in residential care communities. Unless a decision is made to take a parent out of a facility BEFORE an outbreak occurs, it would be nearly impossible to do so once there IS an outbreak, unless you're okay having everyone in your home exposed to the virus, not to mention caring for a potentially infected elder with lots of OTHER issues!

It's really a terrible situation we all potentially face here with the residential care home loved ones. There's no 'good' answer, is there? Sending prayers for all of us, and asking for God's mercy at this difficult time.

I'll be interested in this answer too, if someone knows.

In the meantime, what would you do if you found that your family member lived in a facility with a known coronavirus patient? I think we should all assume that if it isn't true right now, it will be true sometime this year. This virus spreads easily. What will you do when it happens?