Delay Antibody Treatment in Nursing Homes

Angie SzumlinskiHealth, News

Long-term care clinicians have asked the federal government to delay allocating monoclonal antibody therapy to nursing homes until further study and to collaborate with facility medical directors when they do. With approval predicted in the coming weeks, the question of who should receive this treatment and how it will be provided is an open question, said AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. In a letter to the Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the organization argued that these therapies require more testing to ensure safety and effectiveness in frail, elderly populations.

The National Governors Association last week published a “need to know” document about the drugs, prompting state health officials to help develop guidance for “efficiently targeting limited resources to populations who are most likely to benefit and address potential barriers to access for populations at highest risk of serious outcomes from COVID-19”.

These are definitely challenging times and although we might have a treatment could the treatment be worse than the disease? These are the questions we need our medical community to answer, through painstaking, thorough evaluation, and discussion. Talk to your medical director, ask the questions, be sure they are doing everything they can to be aware of the newest treatment modalities along with the risks. Medical Directors are required to provide guidance on these situations so stay the course, stay strong, stay well, mask up, and stay tuned!