Raquel Rivera can’t help but feel frustration knowing that her sister Sandy Rivera, who has been in a health care nursing facility for several years, could die at any time due to a lack of quality care.
“We have been fighting for more than two years, expressing our concerns about the quality and lack of attention to Sandy’s needs,” said Raquel, a San Francisco resident.
Raquel said that when the COVID pandemic – 2020 attacked nursing homes and care centers for the elderly, visits were restricted. Shortly afterwards Sandy, 54, suffered a medical emergency that left her in a vegetative state.
“Sandy now requires intensive hospital care the 24 hours. This includes respiratory care because it is connected to a ventilator, frequent suctioning, being repositioned every two hours and verifying that her vital signs are stable, ”said Raquel. “There needs to be stricter regulations to protect Sandy and others in her situation.”
Maria Ferguson, who is a certified nurse assistant (CNA) in Livermore, CA, recounted that she was He has faced a lack of attention to residents in his work. He assured that during the worst days of the COVID pandemic – 19 the work was extremely difficult.
“We would leave our shifts and go home crying because there weren’t enough people to take care of the residents.”
Ferguson added that there were often three or four nurses on the floor trying to take care of even 11 or 12 residents per nurse.
“The residents call and yell for help,” he said. “We were in a rush to move from one person to another, but we didn’t have the help we needed to do a better job. We almost never had time for breaks or lunch. ”
He said that the mornings are usually very busy since they have to lift and bathe residents, transfer them to wheelchairs, change their sheets, give them to have breakfast and make sure everything is fine for their day.
For this job there is usually a nurse for 7 or 8 patients, but with the lack of staff each nurse had up to 12 residents every morning.
“How one takes care of so many patients!”, she questioned herself in amazement.
To advocate for better treatment in these homes and centers, Raquel and Ferguson joined a coalition of workers and advocates for the elderly, with disabilities, and legislators from California to support a radical legislative reform package that aims to help the most vulnerable.
Studies have revealed that one in four deaths from COVID – 19 in California has sid or in a nursing home. At the national level, the virus has killed 13, 000 lives. A study of nursing home deaths reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that, “Nursing homes with the highest proportions of non-white residents experienced COVID death counts – 19, 3.3 times higher than those of the facilities with the highest proportions of resident whites. ”
The Proposals
On Tuesday during a virtual press conference, lawmakers presented their proposals that they hope will be a positive change for the people of the elderly and with disabilities.
Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian (CA – 46 ), chair of the California Aging Committee, said Californians older than 60 years represent the 12% and it is estimated that for the next 15 years can become the 15% of the Po blation of the state.
One of the bills is the AB 749 of Assemblyman Nazarian, which guarantees that the medical directors are certified.
“California currently requires all skilled nursing facilities to hire a medical director, but there are loopholes that have been used where some simply hire someone just to sign the documents necessary and then they leave, ”Nazarian said.
The bill will guarantee that, if the doctor is working in the office, he is certified with the appropriate training and that he is committed to the field.
Another proposal in the package is the AB 279 of Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (CA – 66), which seeks to protect older people during the pandemic. One of the goals is to prohibit nursing homes from evicting their patients, or transferring without their consent during the period of the COVID state of emergency – 19.
“I think there are countless examples of how older people have experienced transference trauma, and so much more,” Muratsuchi said.
Additionally there is Bill AB 1042 by Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (CA – 59), which aims to close a gap that has been exploited by the owners of facilities that offer poor care. And when they are given a penalty they don’t pay it.
Since the year 2000, qualified nursing homes have not paid $ 15 million in fines after being cited for serious violations related to patient injury and negligence.
“This bill will allow the Department of Public Health to request payments from companies in which the owners of nursing homes have economic interests,” said the assemblyman.
By granting DPH the authority to go after these outside companies, all parties involved in the operation of the nursing home should be encouraged to provide comprehensive care and ensure compliance with existing regulations.
Jones-Sawyer noted that for many years, landlords have hired businesses owned by family members, friends, or even themselves to rent property, medical supplies, and other services. s, just to line their pockets, with more money at the expense of patients.
“Nursing home owners have used the networks of these connected companies to secure their financial interests, limit exposure legal and hire themselves at inflated prices, without supervision or responsibility, ”said Jones-Sawyer.
The bills are expected to be presented to the assembly in the coming weeks.