Md. experience shows challenges facing US call for nursing home tests

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The White House is recommending that all nursing home residents and staff be tested for the new coronavirus in the next two weeks, a step that had been announced in Maryland by Gov. Larry Hogan in late April.

But if Maryland’s experience is any indication, widespread nursing home testing has its own set of challenges.

Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, told governors on a video conference call Monday that it’s the federal government’s strong recommendation that such testing be done.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the task force coordinator, told governors to focus over the next two weeks on testing all 1 million nursing home residents. She says the White House will help states that need it.

Nursing homes and the elderly have been shown to be especially susceptible to the virus.

Two weeks ago, Gov. Larry Hogan ordered all nursing homes to begin mandatory testing of workers and residents in facilities and to develop staffing plans in the event of an outbreak.

“Our association has advocated for testing,” Joseph DeMattos, chief executive officer of the Health Facilities Association of Maryland, told members of the General Assembly’s Joint COVID-19 Work Group last week.

“You have to do it in a statewide way, and it has to be staged. You can’t just do it once on employees,” he said.

That testing, however, has so far been slow to reach the state’s 226 nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities and the 16,000 residents and 36,000 employees in those facilities.

“Testing is a major, major problem, DeMattos said. “The governor rightfully ordered testing, but at the time the state didn’t have a plan to operationalize that testing and so what’s happened with that is that different counties made different requirements to providers in those counties.”

“There’s a shortage of testing,” he said. “It’s one thing for the state to order testing in an environment where testing is not available is a problem.”

DeMattos said facilities in need could usually acquire one or two tests from county health officials.

“In Baltimore County, as an example, a facility says I need a test and they get one test, which goes to the lab,” said DeMattos. “And (the facility) says I need 10 and the county will come back and say I can give you four. And that’s the reality on the ground.”

Hogan told reporters hours later that the state, using its nursing home strike teams, had finished evaluating all of the centers in the state. Facilities with immediate needs would be prioritized, he said.

“We’re not just handing out tests to all the nursing homes,” Hogan said. “The state will be going through and testing them all as we work down the list, and we’re making great progress.”

But the situation has left some lawmakers concerned. On Sunday, Del. Kirill Reznik, D-Montgomery, sent a letter to Hogan demanding answers about the test kits bought from South Korea as well as their use in nursing homes.

“It is unconscionable for the governor to demand that nursing homes and residential care facilities, the source of over 60 percent of COVID-19 related deaths, immediately test all staff and residents through executive order and not provide them the means to do so, while sitting on a half-a-million-unit supply,” Reznik wrote.

As of Monday, the state Department of Health reported that the 803 deaths at nursing homes made up 51% of all COVID-19 related deaths in Maryland despite being responsible for less than 19 percent of all cases.

Michael Ricci said the state had used nearly 4,000 kits in nursing homes since Friday including 850 over the weekend.

Daily Record government affairs reporter Bryan P. Sears and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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