Another Day in Retirement

My day started with an email that shared new guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid that ultimately became the natural bookend for my day.  The guidance makes it easier for nursing homes to transfer patients from one facility to another, which goes against all of the science we are learning about and the clinical opinions of the experts on the frontlines.  Our government is acting in a totally illogical manner, not driven by science or experts, but by politics, ego and bureaucracy.  Like I always do under these circumstances, I immediately sent an email to the Chief Medical Officer at CMS briefly detailing how crazy this guidance was.  Remarkably, within an hour, she responded by asking if she could share my email, and I said, "absolutely!"

The bookend to my day was another story on ABC News in San Francisco.  This story was about an 89 year old woman who got COVID19 at her nursing home and was ready to be discharged from the hospital.  They wanted to discharge her back to the same facility that had a serious outbreak with multiple deaths.  Her response, as well as her family's, was "no way." My response was "nuts!"  I must have been channelling "The Battle of the Bulge."  https://abc7news.com/nursing-home-coronavirus-hayward-care-center-gateway-near-me/6102906/

My day took at turn around 11 am when someone in the pharmaceutical industry offered me an opportunity to send a letter to Governor Newsom through a lobbyist that they use in California.  Within an hour, I'd written and sent the letter, and then happened to be in contact with my State Senator who also happened to be having a meeting with the Governor's Chief of Staff.  He offered to pass on the same letter!  I still have no idea if the Governor saw it, or whether he'll respond.  He keeps promising to address the issue of COVID19's impact on older adults, but I am skeptical.  The people in his cabinet and in his administration seem more focused on doing things "their way," than listening to actual experts and doing the right thing.

My day continued with meetings with doctors in Boston, St. Louis and Riverside, all of whom were looking for advice on how to set up COVID19 Positive Post Acute Care Centers, something which I've been involved in developing the methodology necessary to effectively create.  I finished my day talking to yet another geriatrician friend. We are truly a "band of brothers, and sisters."