Assessing the Relationship between Infection Citations and COVID-19 Infections in Nursing Homes

Abstract

In the US, 40% of fatalities from COVID-19 have occurred in nursing homes Identifying warning signs of nursing homes with a higher chance of having COVID-19 cases and deaths can help target interventions to lower the overall spread and mortality associated with the disease The purpose of this study was to determine whether staff shortages, staff infections, or previous citations would affect the likelihood of cases of COVID-19 and associated deaths in nursing homes Data was obtained from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Nursing Home Compare Dataset and the COVID-19 Nursing Home Dataset for six western states for 03/01/2019 through 02/29/2020 States were heterogeneous and were analyzed independently of each other The relationship between staff-confirmed COVID-19 cases and resident cases was tested using a Fisher's exact test A logistic regression was used to model how prior citations and staff shortages affected the likelihood of cases and deaths, relative to the number of occupied beds per facility