WASHINGTON, DC (WTAJ) – Medicare on Wednesday released a new online tool to compare COVID-19 vaccination rates between nursing homes.

The “Compare treatments”Feature on Medicare.gov aims to respond to complaints from consumer groups and lawmakers that critical data regarding nursing home quality and safety issues is too hard to find.

U.S. Senate Committee on Aging Chairman Bob Casey (D-PA) was among lawmakers who called for improving access to COVID-19 vaccine data in nursing homes by making it available residents, workers and families of nursing homes.

“Patients, families and workers deserve transparent and timely data on vaccination rates in nursing homes,” said Senator Casey. “I commend the Biden administration for making the data on the COVID-19 vaccine available to nursing home residents and their families, which will help them make more informed decisions about their care and enable nursing home workers to better assess the safety of their work. . COVID-19 has devastated nursing homes, and I hope this important transparency measure will help make this important part of the healthcare system a safer place to receive care and work. “

Nursing home residents have been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting for more than 150,000 deaths in the United States. Nationally, about 84% of residents are now vaccinated, which has slowed the spread of the delta variant in frail patients.

Medicare officials say they are encouraged that although the delta variant has spread across the country, outbreaks in nursing homes are not getting out of hand as they did last year. last. They attribute this to the high rate of residents who have been vaccinated.

Those looking to find and compare data in our region can visit medicare.gov.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.