Michigan’s House Oversight Committee Holds Meeting To Review Gov, Whitmer’s Covid-19 Nursing Home Policy

A press release was sent out by Michigan’s House Oversight Committee announcing their meeting to “examine” the Governor’s Covid-19 nursing home policy.  A policy that led to many deaths in Medicaid-funded nursing homes in Michigan.

For months we have heard about New York’s Democrat Governor Cuomo who signed an Executive Order that forced state nursing homes and assisted living facilities, many of whom were ill-equipped to stop the spread of the disease, to accept residents with COVID-19. The decision proved to have fatal consequences, with a third of all coronavirus deaths in the state occurring in nursing homes.  Well, Cuomo was not the only governor to do so, there were another 4 Governors, coincidentally all Democrats that issued and signed an Executive order very similar to his.

Many know that Michigan’s own Governor Whitmer had done the exact same thing. Putting the most vulnerable Michigan population at risk and certainly personally signing some of their death certificates when on April 15th she signed executive order 2020-50 mandating that all Michigan nursing homes and other long-term care facilities accept COVID-19 patients from nearby hospitals.  Governor Whitmer has still not fully rescinded that order.

The order specifically stated:

A nursing home with a census below 80% must create a unit dedicated to the care of COVID-19-affected residents (“dedicated unit”) and must provide appropriate PPE, as available, to direct-care employees who staff the dedicated unit. A nursing home provider that operates multiple facilities may create a dedicated unit by dedicating a facility for such a purpose.

If the long-term care facility where the resident resided prior to the onset of one or more of the principal symptoms of COVID-19 (“facility of residence”) has a dedicated unit and provides appropriate PPE to the direct-care employees who staff the dedicated unit, the hospital must discharge the resident to their facility of residence for placement in the dedicated unit, provided there is available bed capacity.”

We found out last summer Governor Whitmer was warned about her decision to force nursing homes to allow their residents to stay in their nursing homes after being infected.  The Detroit News wrote an editorial titled “Whitmer must answer for nursing home policy”.

Well perhaps now she will have to answer for her nursing home policy, a policy that many believe allowed thousands of elderly patients to die when those deaths could have possibly been avoided.

The Committee Chairman Steve Johnson (R-Wayland) will be Chairing that meeting in Room 326, Anderson House Office Building, in Lansing today at 10:30 am.

According to the press release:

“The committee will discuss Gov. Whitmer’s COVID-19 nursing home policy with DHHS. The policy has been under the microscope for various reasons. People who had tested positive for COVID-19 were placed into nursing homes under the same roof as healthy residents who were at high risk of infection. The Michigan Nursing Homes COVID-19 Preparedness Task Force – which was convened by the administration – formulated plans for resident placement, resource availability and quality of life for long-term care residents, but those recommendations were not reviewed promptly by the administration. Concerned residents, including ones with loved ones within these facilities, will testify to share their experiences in the hearing.”

Note: Streaming video of Thursday’s House Oversight Committee hearing can be seen here.

Let us hope this “examination” will determine why Whitmer enacted such policies, what was the science behind her decision and why did she not adjust or retract that executive order when she saw the deaths in those nursing homes rise at an alarming rate.

Hopefully, this committee meeting is not just a show meeting to attempt to appear to address the concerns of many people in Michigan.

Hopefully, Governor Whitmer will also be transparent and fully open up to the Committee and allow them to get to the reason why she issued that Executive Order when the science and experts in the field informed her it was a bad idea.

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