New York State Senator Sue Serino has introduced a bill, Senate 8996, that would require the New York State Health Department to submit a plan to establish regional step-down facilities to temporarily care for individuals who have been discharged from a hospital after receiving treatment for COVID-19, or any other sickness related to a pandemic, to a nursing home, adult care facility or assisted living residence where such individual would reside in safety.
The bill provides that the Department of Health, in consultation with organizations representing hospitals, nursing homes, adult care facilities and assisted living residences, shall develop a plan to establish regional step-down facilities in the event of a second wave of COVID-19 or another pandemic and requires the Health Commissioner to submit such plan to the governor and legislative leaders of the Senate and Assembly by no later than October 15, 2020.
Senator Serino's Memorandum in Support of Bill states that "[one] of the biggest lessons learned from [the COVID-19 crisis was] that New York, along with many other states and countries, [was] simply unprepared to handle a pandemic of this magnitude. While concern that hospitals would be overwhelmed at the height of the pandemic was justified, sending COVID-19 positive patients into nursing homes among our most vulnerable population defied commonsense.
"OVID-19, and many believe this to be a serious undercount as New York State, contrary to the practices of other states with major COVID-19 outbreaks, only count residents who died in the facilities and excluded those who contracted the virus in the facility but later died in the hospital. Many within nursing homes have compared the spread of COVID-19 within the facility once it has entered to wildfire. This analogy is particularly troubling given that more than 6,300 hospital patients were released into nursing homes."
The Commissioner would also be required to review and update the regional step-down facility plan biennially, or more frequently if the Commissioner it deems necessary. The plan would be posted publicly on the Department of Health's website.
No companion bill has yet been introduced in the New York State Assembly.