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On August 26th, the Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released guidance for nursing
homes and clinical laboratories to assist in enhancing their abilities to
prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to nursing
home residents and their front line staff.
Nursing homes are particularly vulnerable to the prevalence
and spread of COVID-19. CMS continues to take proactive steps to
enhance infection control policies, including practices that limit
potential transmission, and prevent outbreaks within these facilities to
protect residents. Today’s guidance requires all nursing homes to test all residents
and staff for COVID-19. A new survey tool is included with this
guidance as well. A second memo recommends that facilities that
conduct patient lab tests use authorized detection antigens as another
deterrent in infection prevention and control (IPC). These efforts
are aimed at preventing the virus from entering nursing homes, improving a
facility’s ability to detect cases quickly, and stopping transmission.
Swift identification of confirmed COVID-19 cases allows a facility to take
immediate action to remove exposure risks to nursing home residents and
staff.
The nursing home guidance memo outlines steps that facilities
must take under the new testing requirements, including instruction on
terms of frequency, reporting, documentation and other requirements and a
revised facility survey tool for program compliance.
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