The Infection Control Today® chronic and long-term care facilities page provides news, updates, and guidance on tackling infection prevention in these unique environments, including nursing homes, skilled nursing centers, and assisted-living facilities. This page includes news on cleaning, disinfection, antibiotic stewardship, hand hygiene, isolation precautions, outbreak protocol, and more as administrators and infection prevention teams seek to curb outbreaks of pneumonia, influenza, Clostridioides difficile, urinary tract infections, and skin and soft tissue infections, among others.
September 18th 2024
A recent study explores individual, organizational, and environmental factors influencing home care providers' adherence to facial protective equipment (FPE) to improve future pandemic preparedness.
Understanding Long-Term Care's Unique Challenges
July 13th 2014With the U.S. healthcare reform mandate for increasing transparency and improved quality, the need for infection prevention and control in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) is becoming more critical than ever before for the more than 3 million Americans receiving geriatric care in U.S. annually. In January, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) published the Infection Preventionist’s Guide to Long-Term Care to assist facilities in creating and implementing comprehensive infection prevention programs.
Infection Prevention in LTC: Emphasis Needed on Education, Evidence-Based Practices
August 5th 2013An aging population is swelling the ranks of long-term care (LTC) residents in this country, and the need is greater than ever for the implementation of infection prevention and control in these facilities. Barriers to good practice are numerous for both the frontline healthcare worker and the infection preventionist (IP), but these can be combated with the right skill sets and knowledge, emphasizes Gail Bennett, RN, MSN, CIC, of Rome, Ga.-based ICP Associates, Inc. who has spent many years consulting to LTC facilities and health systems across the country and who was a co-author of the SHEA/APIC guideline on infection prevention and control in the long-term care facility.