H eadlines
Short Film Tackles Long-Term Care and COVID
NATIONAL DAVID RULLO | CONTRIBUTING WRITER
IT’S A BLEAK STATISTIC:
The nursing home population
is .5% of the general popula-
tion but accounts for 40-50% of
COVID-19 deaths.

That’s because long-term
care systems suffer from under-
investment, said Marc Cohen,
co-director of LeadingAge
LTSS Center at the University
of Massachusetts, Boston.

Cohen’s warning opens the
Jewish Healthcare Foundation’s
documentary “What COVID-19
Exposed in Long-Term Care,”
focusing on the pandemic’s
threat to the elderly and disabled
in nursing facilities.

The 22-minute documentary
will stream online Feb. 24 at 7
p.m. Following the program,
CBS Pittsburgh affiliate TV
anchor and producer Lynne
Hayes-Freeland will host a
panel discussion about what is
happening in the long-term care
industry, what it means for baby
boomers and their children
and what policy changes need
to occur to properly care for
seniors in the coming years.

Through footage sourced
from cable news stations and
with a bevy of local and national
experts, the documentary makes
the point that, despite the crisis
occurring at long-term facili-
ties early in the virus’ impact,
there was no systematic plan to
combat the effects of COVID-19.

As a result, patients died and
family members felt victimized.

“People weren’t thinking of
nursing homes,” explained Dr.

Vincent Mor, professor of health
services, policy and practice at
Brown University. “They didn’t
make a big, concerted effort
to get protective equipment to
them, to begin testing staff.

Nursing homes were always an
afterthought.” Deficiencies in state and
federal planning led directly
to the deaths of long-term care
patients, according to several
experts in the documentary.

“We have been on our own
trying to deal with this virus
and keep our residents safe,”
said Deborah Winn-Horvitz,
president and CEO of
Pittsburgh’s Jewish Association
on Aging, which owns several
long-term care residences.

Nursing home owners, opera-
tors and staff were easy targets
for blame, notes narrator Chris
Lockerman, despite the fact that
facility front-line workers and
management attempted to find
HAPPIER Name: Attleboro Retirement Community
Width: 5.5 in
Depth: 5.5 in
Color: Black plus one
Comment: JE-ROP
TOGETHER 12
FEBRUARY 18, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
“What COVID-19 Exposed in Long-Term Care” streams on Feb. 24.


Courtesy Jewish Healthcare Foundation
guidance and support.

Long-term care facilities
are understaffed, have a lack
of substantial investment
and include workers who are
undercompensated and aging,
according to the film.

“Residents of these facilities
deserve a level of care and skill
that government reimburse-
ment simply doesn’t support,”
Lockerman said.

“The single largest issue is
the underfunding of Medicaid
clients in nursing facilities,”
Winn-Horvitz said. “For most
organizations, that shortfall is
$100 a day per person. That’s
well over a million dollars a
year. This issue was very signifi-
cant going into COVID and has
now been completely exacer-
bated because of COVID-19.”
JHF decided to produce the
documentary after seeing the
deep flaws within the system
exposed by the pandemic, said
JHF President and CEO Karen
Wolk Feinstein.

“Years of neglecting the
challenges to our nursing homes
led to the chaos and death that is
perhaps the greatest tragedy of
the pandemic and we wanted to
create something that would tell
this important story,” she said.

Feinstein serves on the
board of the JAA and said the
staff there struggled with “the
unthinkable.” “Their courage and resource-
fulness convinced me that they,
and others in similar situations,
needed to receive their due,”
she said.

Feinstein also expressed
concern that those working in
skilled nursing facilities would
be blamed for the tragedy.

While the prioritization
of seniors and those living in
congregate settings to receive
the vaccine was a positive step,
Feinstein said that many under-
lying issues have not yet been
addressed and there remains
an urgent need to reform the
long-term care system.

“The mission for the
documentary is to raise the issues
underneath the horrible number
of deaths from COVID-19 in
nursing homes and spur action
to change national and state
policy,” she said. “We want
this to further conversation for
the urgent need to reform our
long-term care system.”
The documentary ends with
a call to action by viewers to
contact governors and legislators
on behalf of seniors, with a goal
of redesigning and investing
in better equipped, adequately
staffed residential facilities.

If allowed to continue
unabated, the next pandemic
will see the same cycle at
long-term facilities, Feinstein
said, “if not worse.”
To register for the documen-
tary and discussion, go to
ovee.itvs.org/screenings/55iri. l
David Rullo is a staff writer for the
Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

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