CareNotes

Rise In COVID-19 Cases: A Good Time to Review CDC Guidance on Core Infection Prevention and Control Practices

In recent weeks, new COVID-19 variants of interest have emerged, and COVID-19 cases are on the rise. As such, long term care providers must remain vigilant in their infection prevention measures. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) still expect nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, and residential care facilities to follow the core infection prevention and control practice guidance issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for health care settings, which can be accessed here.  The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and ODHS have also prepared an “Interim Summary of Long-Term Care Facility Infection Control for COVID-19 and Other Respiratory Pathogens,” which can be accessed here, to help providers implement the guidance. OHA and ODHS recently updated this summary to include a “Visitation Template Tool” as well as “LTCF Contact Tracing” tool.

While there are no longer any facility-wide mask mandates for staff, residents and visitors in health care settings, the decision around when to implement broader, facility-wide use of masking is currently left up to the provider based on a facility risk assessment. Under CDC guidance, which can be accessed here, the facility risk assessment should consider the following factors in determining when to implement broader use of masking:

• The types of residents cared for in the facility (e.g., is there a large population of residents who are moderately or severely immunocompromised, do residents generally remain in the facility, or do residents frequently leave the facility).
• Input from relevant stakeholders, such as residents, family members and healthcare personnel to determine what practices would be more broadly supported by that facility’s setting.
• Plans from other facilities in the jurisdiction with whom the facility shares patients (e.g., are other facilities or providers in the area implementing broader use of masks).
• Any available data to help guide decisions (e.g., are there any state or local data metrics that are being published that can help inform decisions, such as the facility vaccination rates, general COVID-19 hospitalization rates, and wastewater data). A link to Oregon’s various data dashboards may be accessed here.

As a reminder, residents, staff and visitors who voluntarily choose to wear a mask should be allowed to do so.

Finally, CDC continues to recommend encouraging residents and staff to remain up to date with all recommended COVID-19 vaccine doses. We anticipate that vaccinations rates will become a main focus again as COVID-19 cases increase. An updated COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be available sometime this fall. To facilitate access to any recommended COVID-19, flu, or other respiratory virus vaccines, providers may want to start reaching out to pharmacy partners and begin plans to host vaccine clinics in their communities, including issuing any corresponding communications around keeping up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations.