Written by Eric Kearsley, Willow Street. This piece was first published on June 8, 2020 in LNP/Lancaster Online. Reprinted here with permission from the author.
Last week the politically polarized Lancaster County Commissioners came together and unanimously approved a plan to use some of the funds provided by the CARES Act passed by Congress to monitor and manage COVID-19 in our community. Their plan included a provision for providing free, one-time testing for COVID-19 for all residents and staff of skilled nursing facilities in our county as well as a rapid increase in the availability of testing (an initial goal of 1000 tests per day) complemented by contact tracing for the rest of us. This is a good start.
However, skilled care facilities have the option to decline to participate. Given the limited availability and cost for testing as well as the vulnerability of this population, it would be unconscionable for a skilled care facility to decline this opportunity. The LNP should monitor this program and report the participation of our skilled nursing facilities.
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