Renzo Downey
Members of the state’s task force to reopen long-term care facilities want to make outdoor visitation possible with as few limitations as necessary.
Tuesday marked the second meeting of the panel since Gov. Ron DeSantis announced its creation nearly two weeks ago. Already, and after months of waiting after the Governor first aspired for task forces to reopen, plans are coming together that could soon let family members visit their lived ones.
The mantra throughout the meeting became “strongly encourage access” and “limit barriers to access.”
“I’m confident, I’m optimistic that we can chart a course,” said Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Mary Mayhew, who leads the task force.
On Friday, during the panel’s first meeting, there was largely a consensus that wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) would be necessary for visitation, but a COVID-19 test would not. That continued Tuesday, with panelists stressing outdoor visitation as an option for facilities where indoor meetings weren’t yet possible.
“That is not through the window,” Mayhew said of outdoor visitation. “We want to take it beyond. This is the loved ones can see or hear each other” with social distancing, PPE and hand washing requirements.
Initially, members of the task force seemed eager to clear outdoor visitation with no consideration to the prevalence of cases either in the facility or the community. But Surgeon General Scott Rivkees later asked to delay the debate about limits based on the disease’s presence in a facility.
“I think the COVID rate is reflective of the infection-control practices within that facility,” Rivkees said, adding that facilities that are free of outbreaks for 28 days could allow outdoor visitation.
Mayhew did not immediately have a count of how many facilities met that threshold.
But Mary Daniel, who drew national attention after she went to work as a dishwasher at a memory-care facility so she could spend time at the center with her husband and represents caregivers on the panel, called the 28 day criteria concerning.
“I also don’t want to be shortsighted to those of us that aren’t going to make that criteria and tell them you’re going to have to meet those 28 days,” she said. “I do want to be sure we can encompass as many people as possible, and we will take an outdoor visit all day long if that gets us in right away.”
Daniel has given voice to the frustration of long-term care facility residents, family members and facility staff who have seen families struggle and the condition of residents deteriorate.
To kick off Tuesday’s panel, she shared a four-minute video from Floridians with family members in long-term care facilities. One story shared in the video was from a daughter who was only able to yell to her father as he was wheeled into a hospital before he died from COVID-19.
Another consideration for the task force was the distinction between essential caregivers and compassionate caregivers.
Essential caregivers, people — family or not — identified as frequent caregivers to individual residents from before the pandemic, would be allowed close contact to bathe, feed or provide other services to the resident they care for. Those caregivers would be limited per resident and follow “strict adherence to PPE” and take a diagnostic test every two weeks like staff do currently.
Compassionate caregivers would have fewer PPE requirements because there would be less risk for transmission. Compassionate caregivers could also visit without taking biweekly tests, and they could even visit residents who have tested positive for COVID-19.
The task force will meet again Wednesday to hash out more details before creating a first draft of recommendations. Panelists will review that draft at the task force’s following meeting planned for early next week.
Daniel, who called for a quick turnaround for the task force’s results during the first meeting Thursday, was encouraged by the panel’s willingness to quickly develop a plan that could allow for visitation at any capable facility.
“This is more than I ever hoped for so quickly,” Daniel said.
