COVID-19: challenges in long-term care facilities for older adults in Hispanic American countries

• Autor(a) principal: Wachholz,Patrick Alexander
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Jacinto,Alessandro Ferrari, Melo,Ruth Caldeira de, Dinamarca-Montecinos,José Luis, Boas,Paulo José Fortes Villas
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Geriatrics, Gerontology and Aging (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ggaging.com/details/1656
• topic: homes for the aged; aged; coronavirus infections.

<p><b>INTRODUCTION:</b> Little is known about management and mitigation of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities (LTCF) for older adults in Latin America.<br> <b>OBJECTIVE:</b> To describe how the management of LTCF in Hispanic American countries plan and adapt their routines for coping with COVID-19 and whether they have been able to fulfill recommendations published by the World Health Organization (WHO).<br> <b>METHODOLOGY:</b> A cross-sectional study was conducted by online survey of managers of LTCF located in Hispanic American <b>i</b> countries. A 46-item questionnaire (adopting the WHO principles) was sent to participants. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data.<br> <b>RESULTS:</b> Twenty-three care home managers replied, responsible for a total of 874 older people (range: 5 - 270). One questionnaire was excluded because of missing responses. Fourteen LTCF (63.60%) were private, for-profit facilities. The rate of compliance with WHO recommendations exceeded 70% for the majority of items. Just over half of the institutions had developed dû a strategic management plan, or had identified strategies for dealing with deaths of suspected cases. Difficulty acquiring personal protective equipment (PPE) was reported by 59.10% of the LTCF surveyed. The homes’ capacity for SARS-Cov-2 testing was limited (36.36% of the institutions did not have any tests).<br> <b>CONCLUSIONS:</b> The rate of compliance with recommendations published by the WHO for dealing with COVID-19 was greater than 70% at the majority of the LTCF surveyed. More than half of the institutions had strategic management plans. Availability of PPE and SARS-Cov-2 testing capacity were very unsatisfactory.</p>