State Ombudsman Suzanne Messenger is Interviewed by West Virginia Public Broadcasting on Nursing Home Concerns During COVID-19

May 21, 2020

Statewide comprehensive testing of nursing homes in West Virginia began April 17th, making them the first state to do so. Suzanne Messenger, the SLTCO, says that although complaint numbers are not above average, many of them are now related to COVID-19. She believes that despite states beginning to relax, focus on nursing homes needs to continue being a priority. Toby Edelman points out that nursing homes would have been affected by COVID-19 no matter what, but had there been better infection control and prevention procedures in place prior to the pandemic, nursing homes would not have been hit so hard.

Read the full article.