Long-Term Care

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending December 17

Having an infection preventionist on site or as a consultant to lead infection prevention and control training makes a difference. The ability to screen, isolate, or group patients can save lives. Ongoing testing of residents and staff is critical.

As COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and mortality rates head downward, pediatric SARS-CoV-2 rates rise, and nursing homes can again become disaster zones. And remember: Winter is coming.

Infection preventionists across health care settings struggle with a myriad of problems during this pandemic. IPs at nursing homes have it particularly hard.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending September 17.

Linda Spaulding, RB-BC, CIC: “The time to hold nursing homes accountable is not the time when everything’s falling apart, and they don’t know what to do, and there’s nobody there to guide them.”

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending August 20.

The Nursing Home Improvement and Accountability Act of 2021 bolsters the standing of infection preventionists, but begs the question: Where’s the money going to come from?

As the Delta variant is estimated to be around 50% more transmissible than the original strain, the CDC has been emphasizing the need to improve stagnated vaccine rates.

The pandemic could leave in its wake a “tsunami” of chronic health conditions in younger people, including serious heart problems.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending July 2.

Almost half of nursing homes and assisted living facilities are operating at a loss, while 84% of nursing homes are losing revenue this year because fewer post-acute patients are coming to them from hospitals.

Karen Jones MPH, RN, CIC: “It’s really key to have a good written infection prevention and control plan at the hospital level but then also at the nursing home level. And what keeps that up to date? It’s an infection preventionist who’s knowledgeable, who’s been educated, who’s been trained, who’s certified.”

A five-year survey in Michigan seeks to determine if enhanced relationships between nursing homes and hospitals might facilitate better infection prevention in nursing homes.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending June 25.

Here's one method of containing COVID-19 at nursing homes: Pair long-term care facilities (LTCF) staff and residents who've recovered with susceptible residents to help reduce transmission. It seems to work, says a study.

Investigators with Columbia University School of Nursing found that COVID-19 infections were 13.6 percentage points higher in nursing homes with 50% or more Black residents, and deaths were 3.5 percentage points higher, compared with nursing homes with no Black residents.

Nursing homes, already strapped for employees, lost about 19,500 workers last month, according to government figures. Question: What’s happened to all the funding nursing homes have gotten because of COVID-19?

MIT professors argue that many variables should be included when determining just how much social distancing is needed in different indoor settings.

Investigators University of Michigan-Flint, School of Nursing noted that the Cooper Tool and the Stone criteria are similar but use different methods to arrive at a UTI diagnosis.

One thing that will haunt me and many health care personnel in both acute care and LTCFs forever is that so many people died without a family member at their bedside.

SARS-CoV-2 is aerosolized. If a non-vaccinated person who is shedding the virus visits a vaccinated relative in a nursing home, he can easily spread the virus to all who reside in the facility.

COVID-19 outbreak hits Kentucky nursing home a week after CMS relaxes visiting restrictions.

The CMS update on when nursing home residents can have visitors raises grave concerns. The recommendation appears to assume that herd immunity is reached at 70%.

In CMS’ official announcement easing restrictions for visiting nursing homes, no mention was made of the year anniversary—marked today—of when the WHO officially labeled COVID-19 a global pandemic. Still, in so many words, the agency said enough is enough.