Wiping away MDROs: Enhanced barrier precautions and hand hygiene
By
Amanda Thornton, RN, MSN
May 22, 2024
A seismic demographic shift is afoot, with older adults expected to outnumber children by the year 2034 for the first time in U.S. history. This will result in higher demand for long-term care facilities,...
NYC facility halves UTI rate, care costs with ‘practical’ intervention
By
Alicia Lasek
Mar 15, 2021
Gouverneur Health, a 295-bed skilled nursing facility, brought its average UTI rate to 2.13%, — lower than state and national benchmarks — and reduced its related care costs by 52% from the pre-intervention...
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.
Antigen tests just as effective as PCR in preventing COVID outbreaks, NIH study finds
By
Alicia Lasek
Jul 02, 2021
A “highly anticipated” study now shows that both testing approaches can give 98% sensitivity when used at least twice weekly in a screening program.
Clinical briefs for Friday, April 9
By
Alicia Lasek
Apr 09, 2021
Focus shifts to short-stay residents to prevent future COVID-19 outbreaks … U.S. COVID vaccination rates to plateau in April, survey results suggest … U.S. hits COVID shot target; 25% of adults now...
Learn how to combat Candida auris during Oct. 7 webinar
By
Kimberly Marselas
Sep 20, 2021
Candida auris may be one of the scariest, least-understood drug-resistant threats to nursing homes, but that doesn’t mean providers are helpless.
Little to no gains for nursing home infection preventionists pre-COVID
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jun 30, 2021
In the five years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities did little to improve the number or quality of in-house infection preventionists, according to member...
Free LTC infection prevention tool from Yale aims to help nursing home staff save time
By
Alicia Lasek
Nov 09, 2021
A one-stop set of infection prevention resources is meant to make work a bit easier for direct care providers, administrators, managers and support staff, say the Yale School of Nursing and the New York...
Let’s talk about hand hygiene
By
Buffy Lloyd-Krejci, DrPH, CIC
Sep 27, 2022
Infection prevention begins with fundamentals, and there is nothing more fundamental than hand hygiene. However, there is a lot of confusion in the industry regarding the placement of alcohol-based hand...
CMS creating infection control course for Final Rule compliance
By
Kimberly Marselas
Mar 27, 2018
A new, multi-day course is being designed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid to help nursing homes prepare for an infection preventionist requirement included in the revised Final Rules of participation.