Unlike its neighboring four states, Indiana doesn’t publish facility-level data on nursing home cases and deaths attributed to COVID-19.
Instead, state officials say they are relying on those facilities to report information directly to residents’ families.
It’s confounding that this information is withheld from Hoosiers — despite complaints from relatives of home residents about a lack of communication about illnesses and deaths. Especially when you consider last week’s report from the State Department of Health that 584 people had died from the coronavirus at 121 long-term care facilities across the state, representing 41% of Indiana’s total number of COVID-19 deaths.
In St. Joseph County, about 160 of the 826 people who have tested positive for the virus, or about 19%, have been in long-term care facilities. And 17 of the county’s 32 confirmed coronavirus deaths, or 53%, have come from long-term care facilities.
Gov. Eric Holcomb’s rationale for his refusal to name the facilities is that they are private businesses. But a March investigation by the Indianapolis Star revealed more than 90% of Indiana’s nursing homes are owned by county hospitals, which are units of local government. They are also heavily dependent on public money, receiving billions in Medicaid and Medicare payments each year.
It was only under pressure that Indiana officials agreed to share regular weekly updates on nursing homes, but only statewide, aggregate numbers — and nothing about individual facilities.
In a recent Indianapolis Star report, Lynn Clough, who leads the state’s long-term care ombudsman program, said that “the majority of local ombudsmen around the state are experiencing an increase in calls with questions and complaints from frustrated family members not receiving information they seek regarding their loved ones.
Hoosier families and the public at large have a right to know what’s happening in nursing homes across Indiana — something that other states have acknowledged by releasing information about COVID-19 cases and deaths in individual facilities. Providing this data is critical, and contrary to Holcomb’s claim, would not violate the rights of private business.
We’ve seen this move against transparency play out in St. Joseph County, where most of the COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care facilities come from one facility in particular. According to Dr. Mark Fox, the county deputy health officer, the facility is the only one in the county with an “outbreak,” with 107 people — 94 patients and 13 employees — testing positive there; 12 of the patients have died. And like state officials, county officials have declined to identify the facility.
But several family members of residents have told The Tribune that it is Cardinal Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in South Bend. Family members also expressed their frustrations about a lack of communication regarding their loved ones.
In the midst of a pandemic, with the public desperate for accurate, timely information, secrecy on matters of life and death — from state and county officials — is a disservice to all Hoosiers.
