Intervention clears short-stay residents’ rooms of multi-drug resistant organisms
By
Alicia Lasek
Jul 23, 2021
A trial in six Michigan nursing homes that included chlorhexidine bathing significantly reduced the prevalence of drug-resistant organisms in the residents’ rooms when compared with control nursing homes,...
Read my lips: virus may spread through speech
By
Alicia Lasek
May 14, 2020
Speaking in a confined environment can cause airborne virus transmission, likely helping to spread the coronavirus, according to new research.
Providers at risk of COVID-19 exposure offered online safety training: NIH
By
Alicia Lasek
Mar 28, 2020
A virtual safety training program developed with private sector e-learning companies is now accessible on the agency’s website.
No BinaxNOW despite ‘red’ zone designation? Contact HHS, federal testing czar says
By
Alicia Lasek
Oct 06, 2020
Eldercare facility operators who believe they are qualified but have not yet received shipments of BinaxNOW Ag Card tests for COVID-19 may email the agency at a dedicated address, Adm. Brett Giroir said...
Feds mull shortened COVID-19 quarantine period
By
Alicia Lasek
Nov 30, 2020
There is “a preponderance of evidence” that a shorter quarantine period, complemented by a COVID-19 test, could effectively prevent transmission of the disease, according to Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant...
Show us the data: COVID vaccine boosters may get go-ahead, but LTC docs remain wary
By
Alicia Lasek
Danielle Brown
Aug 09, 2021
Booster shots for the most vulnerable appear to be on a fast track to federal authorization. But clinicians want information about necessity, safety, dosing and more to justify prescribing an extra dose...
APIC urges LTC industry to boost infection control capabilities with full-time, certified staff
By
Alicia Lasek
Mar 09, 2022
With the lessons of the pandemic fresh in mind, now is the time for LTC administrators to commit to recruiting and training dedicated, on-site infection preventionists, experts say. Sources of federal...
New cases of antifungal-resistant yeast infections in nursing homes alarm CDC
By
Alicia Lasek
Jul 26, 2021
For the first time, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has identified U.S. nursing home residents and hospital patients with candida auris yeast infections that resist all first-line antifungal...
Initial COVID-19 vaccine booster rollout will affect 3 percent of U.S. population, officials say
By
Alicia Lasek
Aug 13, 2021
The FDA is working with drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna to allow fully vaccinated immunocompromised people to receive an extra shot. Long-term care residents are not yet included in the booster campaign,...
Providers’ best chances in federal budget talks lie with funding for infection prevention, staffing:...
By
James M. Berklan
Oct 13, 2021
OXON HILL, MD — Long-term care interests are clearly down the priority line in federal budget negotiators, one of the industry’s top lobbyists noted Tuesday, but several key topics also have earned...