By Victoria Ratliff
The Statehouse File
INDIANAPOLIS — Site-specific data on illnesses and deaths at long-term care facilities will not be released by the state, despite a quarter of the state’s COVID-19 fatalities occurred in these facilities.
Dr. Kristina Box, the state health commissioner, said that while families with loved ones in nursing homes should be getting that information directly from the facilities, the state will only be releasing aggregate data to the public.
Gov. Eric Holcomb and Dr. Kristina Box provide the daily COVID-19 virtual press briefing.
“At this point, that is the extent to which we want to report data,” Box said when pressed on the issue by multiple reporters during Gov. Eric Holcomb’s daily virtual press briefing.
As of Tuesday, Box said there have been a total of 1,568 positive cases of COVID-19 in 199 facilities across the state, with 162 deaths in 74 facilities.
She said families should be notified by nursing homes and facilities of COVID-19 outbreaks per new requirements from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which regulates the homes.
One reporter said families are frustrated that they cannot get the information, or even have someone at the facility answer the phone. Box said if families are not being notified by the facilities as they should be, they should notify the State Department of Health which can then investigate specific facilities.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
