Commission charged with evaluating response to crisis in nursing homes
OLYMPIA - Candace Goehring, the director of Residential Care Services, a division within DSHS’ Aging and Long-Term Support Administration, has been selected to serve on an independent commission established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the nation’s nursing homes.
The commission has 25 members and is made up of state and local authorities, nursing home residents, advocates, family members, administrators, academics and infection control and prevention professionals. More than 800 people applied to serve on the commission.
“Candace has been an integral part of the state’s response to COVID-19,” said DSHS Secretary Cheryl Strange. “The crisis has had a disproportionate effect on residents in long-term care facilities. Her leadership, poise and dedication have been invaluable. The rest of the country will benefit from the expertise she brings to this commission.”
The commission will convene virtually several times throughout the summer. It will conduct a thorough review of how nursing homes responded to the pandemic and submit a final report to CMS by September 1. Insight from its members will help federal and state authorities as they continue to battle COVID-19 in long-term care facilities across the nation.
“Washington state long-term care facilities were the first in the country to experience outbreaks of COVID-19," said Goehring. "It has been a challenging experience, but I look forward to sharing the lessons we and our community partners have learned as we strive to keep those most susceptible to the virus safe from it.”
Goehring was tasked with immediately shifting all of her division’s resources to combatting COVID-19 in the state’s roughly 4,000 long-term care facilities, including more than 200 nursing homes. In a little more than three months, Residential Care Services investigators and surveyors have visited and performed infection control surveys at all of them.
MITRE, an independent, non-profit organizations, selected the commission members and will facilitate their activities.