Lessons learned from Italian nursing homes during the COVID-19 outbreak: a tale of long-term care fragility and policy failure

The paper critically discusses policy implications and policy lessons from COVID-19 management in the Italian LTC sector. The aim of the paper is to highlight strengths and weaknesses of measures promoted to support nursing homes during the pandemic and after, so to discuss possible routes for future reforms in Italy and comparable countries. After having described the features of Italian LTC sector, the paper discusses 2020 pandemic events both by presenting administrative data and a policy analysis conducted in 9 out of 21 Italian regions so to assess policy interventions. The paper shows that the intrinsic features of Italian LTC sector played a major role in COVID-19 crisis and new policies enacted in 2020 were insufficient to manage the situation. Possible routes for policy reforms are presented in conclusion. Limitations of the analysis relies in the time frame, since COVID-19 effects are still ongoing, while the analysis ended in November 2020.