CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Author's note: The video above is on file from Dec. 20, 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created many consequences since it first began, but it has also renewed many questions about how medical experts and facilities can work to reduce the spread of illnesses in close-knit communities.
UVA Health announced on Wednesday that it received $1.2 million in federal and state funding to continue its work toward solving a serious problem: infection rates in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes.
“Our goal is to establish a trusted one-stop shop for long-term care facilities to help them protect their patients and staff,” said UVA Health Geriatrician Laurie R. Archbald-Pannone, MD, the program’s lead physician.
UVA providers are partnering with the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center to create the Virginia Infection Control Center of Excellence online resource.
Its goal will be to give facilities clear guidelines and best practices to use when addressing the spread of illnesses.
Especially during the pandemic, nursing homes have been considered extra vulnerable because of the health challenges and weaker immune systems that many of their residents have.
As a response, UVA created the Geriatric Engagement and Resource Integration for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Facilities (GERI-PaL) program.
This means that physicians and nursing home staff in parts of the commonwealth have increased their communication and collaboration.
Even initiatives through the program like medical student volunteers calling residents to reduce social isolation have hoped to address the emotional impact.
Coronavirus-related hospital admissions were on the rise again in December of 2022, with older adults a growing percentage of deaths from the virus and less than half of nursing home residents up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations.
A research paper by UVA revealed that the first two facilities assisted by the GERI-PaL program showed lower rates of death from infectious disease versus the facility they were compared to.
"One of the major takeaways from our GERI-PaL work was that providing educational resources in response to community needs can have a significant effect on enhancing care for some of our most vulnerable patients,” Archbald-Pannone said.
“We hope to build on that experience to provide a broader array of best practices to assist our colleagues in long-term care facilities across Virginia.”