He can't stand and is probably too lazy to get them to cart him to the dining room.
He's in a wheelchair. Rounding up SNF residents for meals in the dining room is the aide equivalent of shopping cart wrangling.
More seriously, on the LTC side of things
pre-COVID you want as many residents as possible to eat in the dining room.
Management/Activities will go through spurts of tracking who's eating alone in their room and reminding staff that this contributes to depression.
On the logistics side, serving in the dining room means it's faster to pass trays, easier to clean up/document meal percentages, harder for the residents to hoard food in their rooms, and if you put several feeders at one table the aide can scoot around on a rolling stool and keep them all eating at once. Related: if someone aspirates in the dining room, staff has eyes on them and there's portable oral suction nearby. Someone chokes on food all alone in their room, there's going to be
paperwork.
Covid restrictions in healthcare are still in effect[...] Also likely varies by state, and I'm not in Tinfucksee.
This varies
so hard by state; lots of the South is dropping theirs at least partially. I gave up and looked up the guidance for
TN Congregate Care Settings.
The
Letter to Long Term Care Providers (3/1/21) on that page says they're done giving guidelines; go with CMS:
Effective February 28, 2021, there will no longer be any state mandates or state-specific
guidance regarding long term care visitation. Certified Medicare and Medicaid skilled nursing
facilities and nursing homes should continue to follow the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
(CMS) Visitation Guidance found in QSO 20-39-NH
CMS (the money people)
QSO-20-39-NH Nursing Home Visitation - COVID-19 (REVISED) 09/23/2022:
6. Should the facility pause communal activities and dining during an outbreak investigation?
A: No. Communal activities and dining do not have to be paused during an outbreak, unless
directed by the state or local health department. Residents who are on TBP (i.e. isolation or
quarantine) should not participate in communal activities and dining until the criteria to
discontinue TBP has been met.
[TBP = transmission-based precautions]
I was just wondering if Jack is eating alone because he requested it, if he's being pampered because he's (currently) Skilled, or it's the 'rona. Looks like it's mostly likely the first or second.