COVID-19 highlights the need for universal adoption of standards of medical care for physicians in nursing homes in Europe

O�Neill, Desmond; Briggs, Robert; Holmerov�, Iva; Samuelsson, Olafur; Gordon, Adam L.; Martin, Finbarr C.; The Special Interest Group in Long Term Care of the European Geriatric Medicine Society

Abstract

The nursing home sector has seen a disproportionately high number of deaths as part of the COVID-19 pandemic. This reflects, in part, the frailty and vulnerability of older people living in care homes but has also, in part, been a consequence of the failure to include care homes in the systematic planning of a response to COVID, as well as a measure of neglect of standards and quality improvement in the sector. In response, the EUGMS published a set of medical standards of care developed in consultation with experts across its member national societies in 2015. The standards consisted of seven core principles of medical care for physicians working in nursing homes as a first step in developing a programme of clinical, academic and policy engagement in improving medical care for older people who are living and frequently also dying as residents in nursing homes. The gravity of the concerns arising for nursing home care from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as emerging insights on care improvement in nursing homes indicate that an update of these medical standards is timely. This was performed by the writing group from the original 2015 guidelines and is intended as an interim measure pending a more formal review incorporating a systematic review of emerging literature and a Delphi process.

Citation

O’Neill, D., Briggs, R., Holmerová, I., Samuelsson, O., Gordon, A. L., Martin, F. C., & The Special Interest Group in Long Term Care of the European Geriatric Medicine Society. (2020). COVID-19 highlights the need for universal adoption of standards of medical care for physicians in nursing homes in Europe. European Geriatric Medicine, 11(4), 645–650. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-020-00347-6

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 7, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jun 17, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-08
• Deposit Date: Jun 29, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 29, 2020
• Journal: European Geriatric Medicine
• Print ISSN: 1878-7649
• Electronic ISSN: 1878-7657
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 645–650
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-020-00347-6
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4693176
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41999-020-00347-6
• Additional Information: Received: 19 May 2020; Accepted: 7 June 2020; First Online: 17 June 2020; : ; : On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.; : This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.; : For this type of study formal consent is not required.