Managing the <scp>COVID</scp> ‐19 Crisis: Assessing the Responses of Politicians and Service Providers in Long‐Term Care

ABSTRACT COVID‐19 was a mega‐crisis that disproportionately affected vulnerable groups, with nursing home residents accounting for 30%–60% of COVID‐19‐related deaths in Europe during the Spring 2020. Despite these shortcomings, little is known about how individuals evaluate crisis management by governments compared to performance by service providers. To address these gaps, we surveyed family members of nursing home residents ( n = 2060) in Spain through two survey waves (2022, 2024). We test three hypotheses: the first examines whether perceived quality of routine services provided by nursing homes is associated with a better perceived response during crisis episodes. The second and third hypotheses test how perceptions of national and regional governments' responses affect the perceived performance of nursing homes. Our findings show that in times of crisis, perceptions of performance are shaped more by the actions and visibility of political actors than by the day‐to‐day quality delivered by service providers.