Management of the Care Homes for Older Adults During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The older adults are one of the categories of the population that is particularly vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus, both in terms of infection rate and mortality rate. Therefore, in the age of a global pandemic, is particularly complex the management of the care homes, which can become hotspots of the virus. Managing of the care homes for older adults during COVID-19 pandemic is facing with number of challenges, the most important are: 1) lack of protocols and guidelines for care homes with clear and applicable measures and activities; 2) lack of measures to deal with the economic consequences of the crisis. However, despite these shortcomings, the managers of care homes in the Republic of North Macedonia, until the end of April, successfully dealt with the pandemic and did not allow the spread of the virus among care homes residents and employees. The data shows that in 18 from total 30 care homes, have only five registered cases positive for COVID-19 (2 care homes residents and 3 employees), which is 0.33% of the total registered cases in the country. This shows that the management and employees have taken appropriate measures and activities in order to protect against the spread of the virus in the care homes in the Republic of North Macedonia.