Healthcare facilities are at high risk for outbreaks associated with legionella. According to the CDC, 9 in 10 investigations show almost all outbreaks were caused by problems preventable with more effective water management. Becky Meyer, MPH, CIC, and Kelley Tobey, MPH, RN, CIC with the Tennessee Department of Health will be presenting on best practices for water management and infection control at the 2023 CSC Annual Summit on August 3, 2023, at the Crowne Plaza in Downtown Knoxville.
CMS has proposed to begin publicly reporting information related to the Transfer of Health Information at discharge. On October 1, 2023, nursing facilities will be required to complete the route of the current reconciled medication list to the subsequent provider and resident/family/caregiver on the MDS v1.18.11 Section A. Qsource developed a tool to support coding on the MDS.
CMS Surveys: Unexpected Requirements and Shifting Standards
If the COVID pandemic has taught the healthcare and long-term care industries anything, it’s that standards can change at a moment's notice. Starting in March 2020 and continuing to this day, nursing homes and long-term care facilities were rocked by unexpected requirements and shifting standards, all levied by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
However, CMS doesn’t operate unilaterally and it doesn’t cast arbitrary rules. Oftentimes, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) calls on CMS to take various forms of action.
As part of the Biden-Harris Administration's ongoing initiative to increase the transparency of corporate ownership in the nation’s nursing homes, CMS posted additional nursing home ownership and operator affiliation data on Nursing Home Compare. CMS also released the Nursing Home Affiliated Entity Performance Measures dataset on data.cms.gov, which aggregates safety, staffing, and quality performance metrics across affiliated entities.
Be Antibiotics Aware Campaign
The CDC's Be Antibiotics Aware Campaign is a national educational effort seeking to optimize antibiotic prescribing and use, in order to improve patient safety, healthcare quality and combat antibiotic resistance, by raising knowledge, awareness, and motivating behavior change among intended consumer and healthcare professional (HCP) audiences.
The Project Firstline Team wants to come to your facility and provide FREE lunch and learn sessions to your staff! Help “stop the spread” and enjoy lunch while we do it. Please use this link to express interest in signing up for a Lunch & Learn session: https://redcap.link/LunchANDLearn. For questions or concerns, please email Katherine.A.Witcher@tn.gov.
New COVID-19 Updates
Important information regarding the Long-term Care Facility COVID-19 Module became visible within the NHSN application beginning June 12, 2023. The PowerPoint slides and video recording for the training webinar titled, “New Updates to the NHSN LTCF COVID-19 Module Surveillance Pathways,” held last month are now available on the COVID-19 Module | LTCF | NHSN | CDC Website, under the heading “Recent Trainings”.
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