Patrick Connole 10/6/2020 Providermagazine.com The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) is asking long term care professionals, residents, their loved ones, and members of the public to partake in a national moment of silence on Oct. 8 to honor the tens of thousands of lives lost in these settings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re asking fellow Americans …
Residents of long-term care facilities (LTCFs) are at risk for severe COVID-19. Facility-wide testing, even in the absence of a reported COVID-19 case, can identify asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infection in LTCFs. Per the CDC, facilities where testing was conducted after a confirmed case of COVID-19 were found to have significantly higher proportions of infected residents and staff members at initial …
The Provider Relief Fund supports healthcare providers in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (PPPCHE), the federal government has allocated $175 billion in payments to be distributed through the Provider Relief Fund (PRF). Qualified providers of health care, services and …
Despite substantial effort over the past 20 years, preventable harm in health care remains a major concern in the United States. Though many evidence-based, effective best practices related to harm reduction have been identified, they are seldom shared nationally and implemented effectively across multiple organizations. The National Steering Committee for Patient Safety released Safer Together: A National Action Plan to …
Temporary disruptions in routine and non-emergency medical care access and delivery have been observed during periods of considerable community transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, per the CDC, medical care delay or avoidance might increase morbidity and mortality risk associated with treatable and preventable health conditions and might contribute to reported excess deaths directly …
The National Nursing Home COVID Action Network, a partnership between AHRQ, the University of New Mexico’s ECHO institute and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), provides free training and mentorship to nursing homes across the country to increase the implementation of evidence-based infection prevention and safety practices to protect residents and staff. As of Fall 2020, nearly one-quarter of the …
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has contracted with Acumen to develop a claims-based quality measure of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) for the SNF QRP. The contract name is Quality Reporting Program Support for the Long-Term Care Hospital, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Skilled Nursing Facility/Nursing Facility QRPs, and Nursing Home Compare (PAC QRP) Support. The contract number is 75FCMC18D0015. As …
According to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, pigs in China are increasingly becoming infected with an influenza virus dubbed G4. The virus is said to be a hybrid of strains found in European and Asian birds: the H1N1 strain that caused the 2009 pandemic, and a North American H1N1 strain that has genes from …
There has been a lot of controversy over whether it is safe to fly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Granted, there are people who, due to work situations, family emergencies, etc., might not have a choice on whether they fly or not while others have chosen to stay on the ground, avoiding the risk of infection that may be spread in …
On a recent conference call with a group of providers, we discussed one of the challenges we continue to face during the pandemic, that of “being prepared”, having sufficient supplies of PPE and understanding the needs in our centers and predicting future utilization. To assist in alleviating the fear of “running out” of PPE, the CDC has provided us with …
