Wyoming Nursing Home Dashboard Sees Positive Trends In March

Kacso Sandor

After seeing large increases in the number of nursing home residents and nursing home staff impacted by COVID-19 last month, the latest version of AARP’s COVID-19 Nursing Home Dashboard shows Wyoming’s COVID indicators improving dramatically in the four week period ending March 20.

Last month, Wyoming’s rate of 23.10 cases of COVID-19 among nursing home staff in the four week period ending 2/20/22 was second highest in the nation and the highest among the contiguous 48 states. For the four-week period ending March 20, that number dropped to 2.0 nursing home staff cases per 100 residents (38 staff). Last month, 70% of nursing homes in Wyoming reported staffing shortages. This month, the staffing shortages dropped to 60%. 

The staffing shortage number was the fifth-highest percentage in the nation, behind Alaska (75%), Minnesota (66%), Washington (60.1%), and Kansas (60.1%). While that is still much higher than the national average of 32%, it does represent Wyoming’s lowest rate since November.

Nursing home residents also saw COVID-19 rates drop dramatically from last month, going from 12.5 cases per 100 residents in February, to 2.0 resident cases per 100 residents (38 cases statewide). Nursing home resident deaths attributed to COVID-19 dropped from .16 COVID-19 deaths (three total) down from 12.5 resident cases per 100 residents last month.

The dashboard also reports:

•  72% of skilled nursing facility residents have received two COVID-19 vaccines, plus a booster shot. 
• 89% percent of residents have received at least two COVID-19 vaccines. 
• 78% of skilled nursing staff have received two shots. That places the state’s rate of staff who have received two shots 44th in the nation. 
• The percentage of skilled nursing facilities reporting shortages of personal protective equipment was way below national averages. Just 2.9% of facilities reported shortages, less than the national average of 17.1%.

About the COVID-19 Nursing Home Dashboard

The AARP Public Policy Institute, in collaboration with the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Ohio, created the AARP Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard to provide four-week snapshots of the virus’ infiltration into nursing homes and impact on nursing home residents and staff, with the goal of identifying specific areas of concern at the national and state levels in a timely manner. AARP’s Nursing Home COVID-19 dashboard has tracked five categories of impact since summer 2020, as well as vaccination rates of nursing home residents and health care staff and is updated every month to track trends over time.