Steven Abdo, a nurse aide at Oaknoll Retirement Residence in Iowa City for four years, explains what it's like to work with residents who don't know when they can see their families again.

States have created a patchwork of requirements for providing information about COVID-19 outbreaks. Some states tell the public where cases and deaths have occurred. Others, like Indiana, only report the total number of cases and deaths at these facilities, and leave more detailed notification to the companies.

The new tallies show 420 COVID-19 nursing home resident deaths, or about 36 percent of the 1,151 total statewide deaths. The statistics, however, dont specify when the newly reported nursing home deaths occurred.

Indiana will now require long-term care facilities such as nursing homes to dedicate a staff member for communicating with residents and their families on COVID-19 information.

Nursing homes around Indiana will be allowed to establish facilities specifically for coronavirus patients under an order issued Tuesday by the state health commissioner.

Nursing homes and senior living facilities in places like Indiana, Illinois and Iowa have experienced dozens COVID-19 cases and deaths. Now, these places are facing a lot of pressure to keep residents safe -- and occupied.

Eleven residents of a central Indiana nursing home have died from COVID-19 while the overall state toll from the disease caused by the coronavius has risen by 12 to 139, state health officials said Monday.

A grand jury indictment alleges that James Burkhart and three others created shell companies and used them to falsify charges to Medicare and Medicaid.

Phase one of the study, developed by Indiana University's Center for Aging Research and the Regenstrief Center, placed nurses in the state's nursing homes who were trained to recognize problems in geriatric patients before they turn into full-blown issues that require hospitalization.

Organizers say the training could impact as many as 1,000 nursing home residents in southwestern Indiana.