Nursing Homes and COVID-19: A Crisis on Top of a Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a staggering number of deaths and a great deal of suffering in U.S. nursing homes. The spread of the virus across the country introduced a new emergency to a long-term care sector that had already been in a state of crisis for multiple decades. Nursing homes have been underfunded and understaffed for years, often delivering inadequate care to their vulnerable residents, and they are financed and regulated separately from the rest of the U.S. health care system. During the pandemic, policy responses at both the federal and state levels were often slow and inadequate, partly due to a frayed infrastructure that is the result of years of inattention from policy-makers. We review the state of nursing home care in the United States and the impacts of the pandemic, and we argue that a package of broader policy and delivery reforms should be implemented to improve the care of older adults that could help to prevent future tragedy.