In a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers created a dataset and data visualization dashboard to evaluate the effectiveness of state and territory-level policies enacted to reduce the severity of COVID-19's impact on older people served by home health care agencies and nursing homes.  

The authors found many policies within states and territories did not correspond with reductions in community or nursing home-level COVID-19 burden (i.e. number of cases and mortality counts). This suggests that policy effectiveness may depend on implementation and compliance. The study also found that policies focused less on home health care agencies compared with nursing homes, despite both settings serving vulnerable older populations.  

“This suggests a gap in public health planning, raising questions about resource allocation and prioritization among health care settings during the pandemic,” the paper says. 

The research team, led by Patricia Stone, PhD, Centennial Professor of Health Policy at Columbia Nursing, conducted this study by first combining data on COVID-19 policies from the Council of State Governments with COVID-19 burden data from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The team then used data visualization software to depict the information. They were able to identify 1,400 policies across 50 states and five territories.  

“Both tools can be used by policymakers and medical professionals to learn from the past and prepare for the future as we anticipate more public health crises. We also suggest that these types of tools are made available during crises to ensure decision-making is data-driven,” says Stone.