"Strike Teams" Easing COVID Risks At MD Nursing Homes

More than half of Maryland’s COVID-19 fatalities have been nursing home residents - a population that's especially vulnerable to this virus. At least six nursing facilities in the state have each reported 100 or more cases of COVID-19. Clearly, we need to protect them and the nurses, doctors, aides, therapists and others coming to work each day in America’s nursing homes.

To that end, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan last month announced the establishment of statewide “strike teams” to support nursing home facilities now struggling to keep the coronavirus at bay. The teams are made up of members of the National Guard, representatives of local and state health departments and emergency medical clinicians, as well as doctors and nurses from local hospital systems. Dr. Matthew McNabney is a geriatrician at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the medical director of Hopkins ElderPlus, a voluntary preventive and long-term healthcare program for independent seniors. As a member of Hopkins' Go Teams, he has taken part in several of the state's strike team missions to assist local nursing facilities.

Dr. McNabney joins Tom on the line from his office at the Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore.

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