As nursing homes continue to accept new residents into their facilities, it is important that staff members get vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to prevent the kind of outbreaks that devastated these facilities this past year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that all staff members of long-term nursing care facilities be vaccinated to keep themselves and staff safe.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to ensure that all long-term care facilities across Georgia and across the country have access to these vaccines. It is imperative that these vaccines be provided to long term care facility staff members, because the pandemic has not resulted in a break in admissions of new patients. After some long-term care facilities stopped taking admissions in the middle of the pandemic, many have now opened up admissions for new residents. These long-term care facilities look after senior Georgians who may be unable to live independently. Most of these persons live with chronic health conditions and may be medically fragile, and therefore, may be prime candidates for the kind of Covid infections, and even the kind of breakthrough infections post-vaccination, that are being seen.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that it is imperative that all nursing facility residents be protected by healthcare personnel who have been completely vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reiterates that it is important that infection control strategies continue to remain in place even after all staff members have been vaccinated. This is to minimize the risk of breakthrough infections, or infections that can set in even after both doses of the vaccine have been administered.
If your loved one is due to be admitted into a nursing facility very soon, ensure that all staff members at the facility have been vaccinated. Cases involving unvaccinated staff members bringing in the infection into a nursing home, are being reported from across the country.
Georgia’s current law protecting nursing homes against most types of liability in the event of Covid-19 infections involving residents make it even more imperative that you, as a family member, go the extra mile to ensure that your loved one is safe from infections. Under the law, businesses including nursing homes are exempt from liability in the event of a Covid-19 infection on the facility. There are exceptions in the case of gross negligence, but these cases can be challenging to prove. At many of these nursing homes, infections were allowed to spread as a result of understaffing, which is a common phenomenon at Georgia’s nursing homes. Understaffing can mean fewer staff members available to implement the kind of protocols that are necessary to prevent outbreaks of Covid-19.
If you or a loved one have suffered an infection or an injury at a nursing home, it is important to talk to an attorney experienced in nursing home abuse to and determine his or her legal rights to a claim for compensation. A claim could recover damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering as well as other types of compensation.