Two state government websites in Georgia recently stopped posting updates on Covid-19 cases in prisons and long-term care facilities, just as the dangerous delta variant was taking hold. Data has been disappearing recently in other states as well. Florida, for example, now reports Covid cases, deaths and hospitalizations once a week, instead of daily, as…
Metro Atlanta hospital systems are uniting to deliver a public message about the increasingly grim picture on the COVID front lines. Representatives from the Wellstar, Piedmont, Emory and Grady systems – often competitors in non-pandemic times – along with those from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Gainesville-based Northeast Georgia Health System, will address the media Thursday morning…
Georgia is second to last among states in conducting comprehensive inspections of its nursing homes, according to a federal report. More than 90 percent of Georgia nursing homes had gone without a thorough inspection for at least 16 months as of May 31, the report found. Federal health agencies require these “standard surveys’’ to be…
Georgia’s tab for providing staffing help to hospitals and nursing homes in the pandemic has grown to $434 million. The payments have gone to Jackson Healthcare, a private firm based in Alpharetta. The company, after getting a no-bid contract, has supplied medical staff, from doctors to nurses to respiratory therapists, to dozens of hospitals and…
Georgia is last in the nation in conducting recertification inspections of its nursing homes, according to a recent media report. By the end of March, nearly 80 percent of Georgia facilities had gone for at least 18 months without these comprehensive inspections, said the investigation report by CNHI, a newspaper company. Georgia’s backlog surpassed those…
Three nursing homes that were hit hard by COVID-19 have been sold to an Atlanta-based company. Empire Care Centers, a private firm, recently purchased Westbury nursing homes in Jackson, McDonough and Conyers. Each facility lost a significant number of residents to COVID. State data show that 26 residents died from the virus at Westbury Conyers….
As the 2021 legislative session ended, Georgia lawmakers wound up not passing a bill to allow visits by a “legal representative’’ to patients in hospitals and nursing homes during a health emergency. The legislation ping-ponged Wednesday between the two chambers, with the House supporting its previous, stronger version, and the Senate holding firm to its…
A Senate committee has gutted legislation that would require hospitals and long-term care facilities to allow a “legal representative’’ to visit a patient or resident during a health emergency. A stripped-down House Bill 290 was approved by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday after about 90 minutes of testimony and debate. A…
A Senate health committee narrowly passed a bill Tuesday that promotes the use of cameras in rooms of residents of long-term care facilities to prevent neglect or abuse. The split vote reflected the panel’s vigorous debate over the differences between cameras that are hidden, and those that would be visible and known to the facility…
A committee of the Georgia House, despite industry opposition, passed a bill Monday allowing people to visit patients in hospital and long-term care facilities during a public health emergency — like the current pandemic. House Bill 290 would allow a “legal representative,’’ usually a loved one, to visit a patient or resident for a minimum…