Two-thirds of Florida's nursing home, assisted living residents and staff have been tested for COVID-19
Ryan Mills
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include new data from the Florida Department of Health.
About two-thirds of the residents and staff of Florida’s nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been tested for COVID-19, according to data provided Saturday by the Florida Department of Health.
As of Saturday, the health department had coordinated on-site testing for 119,102 staff and residents, and shipped an additional 85,850 testing kits directly to long-term care facilities.
That means about two-thirds, or 64% of the 321,983 people who live and work in the facilities have been tested as the department works to meet its goal of testing all elder care center residents and staff by June 12 – Friday.
“We’re in the midst of a very extensive program where we’re testing staff and residents of nursing homes,” Florida Surgeon General Dr. Scott Rivkees said on a call with the Florida Health Care Association, which is posted on the association’s website.
On the same call, Mary Mayhew, secretary for Florida’ Agency for Health Care Administration, acknowledged the state health department’s goal of completing all the testing by June 12.
Long-term care providers serve the state's most vulnerable population. About 85% of Florida's COVID-19 deaths have been among those 65 and older, and nearly half have been connected with long-term care facilities.
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It’s critical that all residents and staff are tested to establish a baseline of who has the virus, to slow the virus’s spread and ultimately to save lives, industry leaders said.
"This is a virus that heaps its fury on the elderly," Rivkees said.
On May 21, the Department of Health began shipping COVID-19 testing kits to facilities that had said they had the capability to conduct tests on their own. Strike teams from the local health departments and the National Guard are administering tests at facilities that said they can’t do it themselves.
But the roll out of the plan was marred by logistical and communication challenges.
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Tests weren’t arriving according to the dates specified on the department’s shipping list, meaning tests weren’t being shipped back to labs on time either. Some facilities received test kits with little warning at the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend, leaving facility leaders scrambling to bring in staff who weren’t working that weekend to be tested.
Some nursing home administrators who spoke to USA TODAY Network - Florida said they weren’t aware they were even on the department’s shipping list.
Nick Van Der Linden, a spokesman for LeadingAge Florida, an association representing about 250 mostly nonprofit long-term care facilities, said those communication and logistical issues have mostly been “ironed out” in the past week.
But now, he said, the association’s members are struggling to get test results back. He said his association was told by the Department of Health that “no news is good news,” and that if facilities aren’t contacted it means they don’t have any positive cases.
“That’s not an appropriate way, especially during a public health pandemic, to go about doing that,” Van Der Linden said. “Providers need to be informed of all test results, positive and negative. It really helps the facility in their planning processes.”
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Van Der Linden said another concern is facilities aren’t being alerted if staff members test positive for the virus due to HIPAA privacy rules, which protect people’s medical records and personal health information.
That means it’s up to staff to alert their bosses if they test positive.
Van Der Linden said LeadingAge Florida is working with the Department of Health to at least get aggregate numbers of facility staff and residents who test positive for the virus.
“Leaving it up to the employee to notify the providers is not ideal,” he said.
The tests are for long-term care residents and staff members and are administered to determine the presence of COVID-19, not antibodies, the Florida Department of Health said in an email in late May. The department said it is sending out 4,000 test kits daily, excluding Sundays and holidays.
"Once all facilities have been tested, the department will reevaluate the next steps and will continue to test at the facilities with active outbreaks," Department of Health spokesman Alberto Moscoso said in an email
On the call with the Florida Health Care Association, Mayhew said that as the state continues to reopen, AHCA is working with state leaders to determine when it will be safe for family members to again visit loved ones living in long-term care facilities.
"Any next step we take has got to be done thoughtfully, carefully," she said. "We don’t want to do anything that increases the risk exposure within our facilities."