When long-term care facilities — and their patients, residents and staff — were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, did it lead to an increase in falls and pressure ulcers?
These are common injuries for people who live in long-term care facilities. During the pandemic, staff took more sick days, were stretched thinner and spent less time with patients. They likely had to take extra time to respond, putting on PPE (personal protective equipment). And, residents likely had less exercise. It does beg the question:
Don’t we think all this might have resulted in more bedsores and falls?
But, UNMC physician assistant (PA) students Anne Meyer, Rebecca Frink and Shayla Steinley hadn’t seen any research on the topic. Neither had Wayne Mathews, associate professor and research director for the PA program.
Many have looked at the effects and incidences of isolation and depression in LTCs during the pandemic. But …
"Currently, there is not research bringing together COVID-19, falls and pressure ulcers in long-term care facilities, making this a novel research idea," their poster presentation reads.
Yes, these students, supervised by Mathews, did strive to find the answer to this question. Which means that UNMC is likely one of the first institutions in the country to take on this potential result of the pandemic as a matter of research.
They asked a few basic questions, and the information they received makes up a limited sample size.
But, the UNMC PA team did find that the three long-term care facilities that provided responses reported a 72% increase in falls from the year 2019, before the pandemic, and the year 2020, which was affected by COVID-19 for several months.
Data could not be compared with national trends. The UNMC project is the only one known to the team.
But, the conclusion is, "it can be inferred that there was a positive correlation between the impact of COVID and the number of falls that occurred in nursing homes," the team wrote.
In contrast, there was little difference in the number of pressure ulcers or bedsores. The facilities averaged 22 in 2019, and 21 in 2020.
While a small study, the UNMC PA teams’ project can be used as a building block for further research.