It is could be about money. These nursing homes receive payments every month from SSI and Medicare. But, it is more likely about being overwhelmed by COVID-19. What is the span of time the deaths occurred? If the bodies were only in the TEMPORARY morgue for a short period of time, the nursing home was overwhelmed in moving these bodies.

The USA's Congress needs to legislate standards for handling nursing home deaths. Often morticians are called to take a person to a funeral home, COVID-19 PERMANENTLY changes the handling of bodies.

Nursing homes frequently receive admissions to their facilities from hospitals. Every person being admitted to a nursing home MUST be tested for COVID-19. Current residents MUST be tested to determine their status. The infection in SMALL COMMON RESIDENCE facilities, including group homes of any kind, must have their residents tested for the virus. If a person living in close contact facilities are proven to be positive (preferably two negative tests) they must be moved from the common areas into a quarantine room and treated until they test negative. But, the real preventative is having two negative tests before they are admitted to the facility.

In this case, the problem may be the AVAILABLE space for the dead. In other words, when a death occurs in nursing homes the body is removed by a mortician for a funeral. That is a single death over a period of time that "the system" can handle. But, if a large number of deaths are occurring all at once the system simply could not handle the transportation of the bodies to other facilities. Kindly remember the staff is not immune to having feelings about long term residents. They care for them and no doubt a whistleblower manifested at the horror of bodies being stored. I am not defending this, but, the circumstances surrounding this discovery lends itself to mishandling to attempt to isolate infection from other residents.

The corporation needs to be contacted and asked to what extent there are ill and dying residents. The corporation also needs to have a plan in place to handle this emergency otherwise the staff is simply carrying out care according to Pre-COVID 19 standards. That is not acceptable and their nursing Vice President/Director should have written standards in the face of this national emergency.

Once again these horrors are happening because there is no leadership from the federal government in how to isolate and handle this disease. Nursing home corporations are going to find themselves at a loss for new standards and procedures, especially if the facility is understaffed which can be common.

There is no excuse for this lack of leadership in DC. If the Trump Administration is lacking to lead, consultants that are qualified can be hired to shore up the poorly performing administration. The Executive Branch frequently hires “czars” to handle special circumstances. That would require spending money.

April 16, 2020
By Vincent Barone

Police reportedly discovered 17 corpses (click here) stuffed inside a small morgue at one of New Jersey’s largest nursing homes.

Officers at the Andover Township Police Department found the bodies at the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center after pursuing an anonymous tip about the improper storage of corpses during the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Times reported.

The bodies were placed in a morgue built for just four as the nursing home grappled with mounting deaths....