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Sen. Casey: Families and workers deserve transparent data on nursing homes vaccination rates | Opinion

During the height of the pandemic in December, more than 15 residents were dying per hour, a devastating toll for people across Pennsylvania and our nation.

Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) arrives to speak to Joe Biden supporters as they celebrate in front of Biden’s childhood home in Scranton, Pa., on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, after news outlets named Biden as the president-elect.
Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) arrives to speak to Joe Biden supporters as they celebrate in front of Biden’s childhood home in Scranton, Pa., on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, after news outlets named Biden as the president-elect.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer

In August, The Inquirer spotlighted a surprising and unique statistic about Germantown Home, a nursing home in Northwest Philadelphia. Ninety-eight percent of its workers had been vaccinated against COVID-19, a far higher rate than many other nursing homes in the region.

If not for the op-ed in The Inquirer, many Pennsylvanians might not know that Germantown Home had reached such a milestone. It is also unlikely that people would know that two other nursing homes in the same zip code reported staff vaccination rates of 56% and 76%.

Accurate and timely data on vaccination rates in nursing homes exist thanks to the Biden administration, which has been collecting and publishing nursing home vaccination data since June in response to bipartisan calls for transparency. However, many Americans do not have the time or skills to navigate this critical data on their own.

That’s why I recently called on the Biden administration to bring information about COVID-19 vaccination rates among residents and workers at individual facilities to Care Compare, a website for families seeking to find more information about health-care providers, including nursing homes.

» READ MORE: How one Philly nursing home overcame hesitancy to get 98% of staff vaccinated | Opinion

The Biden administration has informed my office that Americans will be able to access regularly updated facility-by-facility vaccination rates on this website, which will help individuals and their families make better-informed decisions about their care. Such transparency is critical. It will also help employees of nursing homes better gauge the safety of their work environment, or that of a prospective employer.

Transparent information may also encourage nursing home operators to invest more resources to educate and support workers who are reluctant to get vaccinated or who may not have easy access to vaccines. This model has worked at the Germantown Home and has been used with great success by organizations like the Service Employees International Union.

Unfortunately, transparency and accountability weren’t standard practice in the early days of the pandemic until I convinced the Trump administration to begin collecting and reporting key COVID-19 data from nursing homes such as infections, deaths, and the availability of testing supplies and personal protective equipment.

The data showed severe shortages of workers and personal protective equipment, issues I highlighted while fighting for emergency funding to mitigate the deadly spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes. Through the American Rescue Plan, Democrats in Congress delivered funding for nursing home “strike teams” and for expansion of access to home care.

In order to end this tragedy, it’s imperative that we get more people vaccinated, particularly those living and working in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, where nearly 200,000 residents and workers have died. As we work toward higher vaccination rates, I will continue to demand transparency and accountability for families, residents, and workers.

The next step is to get the Nursing Home Reform Modernization Act, my bipartisan bill with Sen. Pat Toomey, signed into law to enhance accountability among our nation’s poorest-performing nursing homes and ensure that Americans have all the necessary information before moving a loved one into a nursing home or preparing to make that transition themselves.

During the height of the pandemic in December, more than 15 residents were dying per hour, a devastating toll for people across Pennsylvania and our nation.

Vaccines turned the tide of tragedy in nursing homes, but the data make clear there’s more work to be done. American families and nursing home workers deserve transparency and accountability, and I will continue to advocate for them in the United States Senate.

Bob Casey is a Pennsylvania senator.