LOCKPORT, N.Y. — There is new federal guidance to loosen restrictions on people visiting nursing homes. It allows for indoor visits, but that's just for nursing homes.
In Lockport, Mark Ferreri is an administrator at Briarwood Manor, an assisted living facility.
He says 98 percent of his residents, and just under 50 percent of his staff, are vaccinated. He's still waiting to find out how that will impact visitations.
"Unfortunately, we haven't been given any additional guidance with vaccines and people being vaccinated. Hopefully, that would open up things a little bit more for family interactions," Ferreri said.
Adult care facilities in New York State are following state guidance about visitations issued March 2.
Indoor visits are allowed if certain criteria is met, even in private rooms while socially distant. If you have a positive COVID-19 case among residents or staff, you have to suspend all visitations for 14 days.
Briarwood Manor is opening up indoor visits again on Monday. Families make appointments online.
Based on their number of residents, the state allows up to 20 visitors at a time, but they have a policy of one visitor at a time Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., since state guidance also requires a staff member to monitor all visits.
"Unfortunately, if we had 20 people visiting at once, we don't have enough staff to oversee 20 visits at once, and that makes it a difficult situation based on the requirements from the health department," Ferreri said.
"We'd love to have more open visits, and you know, it's been a tough time, as I said. The mental health situations that the families and the residents are going through is very difficult, so we have to weigh that with protection of our staff and residents."
Ferreri is hoping for new guidance soon.
"Because we've got to get back to normal, and our residents need a hug from their families," Ferreri said.
In response to the federal guidance issued Wednesday, the New York State Department of Health said, "The Department of Health is reviewing the new CMS guidance on nursing home visitation. Since last summer we have taken a measured approach to help nursing homes safely implement visitation, and the Department looks forward to continuing this effort.”
Separately, we also wanted to know why 93 percent of the residents in adult care facilities in the five-county Western New York region are vaccinated, while in skilled nursing facilities, that number is only 77 percent.
For the answer, we went to the New York State Department of Health, which is providing that data. While our request was acknowledged, we did not get an answer before our deadline Thursday afternoon.
After our deadline, a NYS DOH spokesperson told us, “When comparing these two populations it’s important to remember that nursing home residents were prioritized from the beginning when infection rates were higher, while residents of Adult Care Facilities were vaccinated after the holiday spike when infection rates were lower. As recommended by the CDC, vaccination of people with a known current COVID-19 infection should be deferred until the person has recovered from the acute illness.”
The spokesperson also said, “All residents and staff were offered to be vaccinated, and there are some staff and residents who refused and, as mentioned, some individuals who had medical contraindications.”