New Documentary Sheds Light on Causes of COVID-19 Crisis in Nursing Homes

A new documentary short film, entitled What COVID-19 Exposed in Long-Term Care, has finished production, and is now available for viewing online. The documentary examines how the COVID-19 crisis has devastated many long-term care facilities across the country, regardless of quality and safety records. Experts discuss how even the best skilled nursing facilities' clinical capacity has been weakened by forces beyond their control: inadequate resources, a feeble response from our health systems and public health authorities, and years of underfunding.

The film features insight from long-term care experts including Marc Cohen, PhD, Co-director, the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston; Terry Fulmer, President, The John A Hartford Foundation; Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, Dean of the School of Public Health, Brown University; Daniel Haimowitz, MD, Internist, Geriatrician, Medical Director; Christopher Laxton, CAE, Executive Director, AMDA – The Society For Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine; Vincent Mor, PhD, MEd, Professor of Health Services, Policy & Practice, Brown University; Katie Smith-Sloan, LeadingAge; David Thimons, DO, President & CEO, Personal Care Medical Associates; Paul Winkler, President & CEO, The Presbyterian SeniorCare Network; Deborah Winn-Horvitz, President & CEO, Jewish Association on Aging; and Louis Woolf, President & CEO, Hebrew SeniorLife.

Over the past month, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) has shared the trailer for the JHF-funded documentary at a number of virtual meetings within our community, including the Jewish Funders Learning Network, the annual Meeting of the Southwestern PA Partnerships for Aging (SWPPA), the Fall 2020 program of the Pennsylvania Geriatrics Society-Western Division, and the Coalition for Quality at End of Life (CQEL). The film will serve as a storytelling and casemaking tool for JHF's Full Court Press initiative, as the new Senior Residential Living Team seeks to change the financial and regulatory policies in order to redesign residential services for frail seniors.

Interested in viewing the film? Watch it online here.