Home healthcare providers, the lifelines to 12 million vulnerable Americans, are scrambling to decide how to serve patients who show symptoms of coronavirus - and how to ensure that the providers themselves neither catch nor spread it.
And in New York, America’s epicenter of coronavirus cases, trade groups said dozens of caregivers have left their jobs and their patients, hurting efforts to swiftly screen at-risk adults and slow the spread of the virus.As hospitals continue to handle an influx of coronavirus cases, patients who need care but are not critically ill are likely to be sent home.
“I spent the whole weekend to score new masks,” said Dickison, also executive officer of Cincinnati-based Home Helpers Home Care. Addus caregivers are required to ask clients five questions about emerging or worsening respiratory problems; contacts with other people diagnosed or screened for the virus; and recent domestic and foreign travel.
In most cases, Addus caregivers told Reuters, care is quickly resumed absent clear evidence of respiratory disease. Even in confirmed cases of coronavirus, care may continue if delays would pose potential harm to patients.Patient screening by home health companies can help detect new viral outbreaks and allow quicker response by public health agencies.