CDC issues new COVID infection prevention and control guidance for nursing homes
By
Alicia Lasek
Sep 15, 2021
A CDC Project Firstline webinar will answer clinicians’ questions on the updates, which include alternative approaches to outbreak response;
expanded screening test recommendations for healthcare...
National survey tells story of COVID in assisted living
By
Alicia Lasek
Aug 19, 2021
New industry data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics details how COVID-19 affected assisted living communities across the country during the height of the pandemic.
Wearers of medical masks and respirators have same infection rates in healthcare settings: study
By
Alicia Lasek
Jun 24, 2021
The risk of receiving a positive COVID-19 test result was the same among healthcare workers who wore either type of mask, investigators say. In contrast, their non-mask-wearing colleagues had significantly...
In breakthrough, feds OK nursing home visits, group dining and activities; update infection control guidance
By
Alicia Lasek
Apr 28, 2021
After nearly a year in lockdown, nursing home residents can participate in indoor visitation, communal dining and group activities — with exceptions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced...
While FDA moves to halt mask reuse, N95 access remains spotty, report finds
By
Alicia Lasek
Apr 15, 2021
A new push to ensure that healthcare facilities stockpile single-use or reusable N95 respirators has arrived while some workers continue to lack access to the equipment and U.S. mask manufacturers can’t...
Manufacturing solutions to skilled nursing’s pandemic problems
By
Dean Moore
Mar 24, 2021
I have been in the workplace a long time. To quote Steve Martin, “If I had saved better, I would not be here.” Over the past year, the long-term care industry has faced monumental challenges related...
Facility PPE reuse at crisis level, infection preventionists say
By
Alicia Lasek
Dec 04, 2020
Fully three quarters of survey respondents say that their healthcare facilities have implemented crisis standards of care for personal protective equipment. The reuse rate is “disheartening,”...
Nurses ask feds to invoke Defense Production Act for N95 masks; survey finds ‘unacceptable’ reuse...
By
Alicia Lasek
Sep 04, 2020
One in three nurses remain short on supplies, an ANA survey has found. “Re-use and decontamination of single-use PPE as the ‘new normal’ is unacceptable, given the lack of standards and evidence...
PPE shortage reported by one-fifth of nation’s nursing homes
By
Alicia Lasek
Jun 11, 2020
A slow and incomplete federal response is largely to blame, investigators claim.
Better to bring masks and respirators from home than to go without: Joint Commission
By
Alicia Lasek
Apr 01, 2020
Employers should not discourage workers from using their own masks or respirators while supplies are short, says the safety advocate.