This week, CMS released a 158-page Toolkit on State Actions to Mitigate COVID-19 Prevalence in Nursing Homes to include 15 sections of best practices from various states. We've pulled out some of the best of best in Cleanliness and Infection Control for your quick scan this week. 

Read on and download/print our At-A-Glance infographic to share among your peers.

N95 Respirator Disinfection

One noticeable trend across various states is funding of the Battelle Critical Care Decontamination System (CCDS)™ for N95 respirator disinfection to address PPE shortages. Noted in the CMS toolkit are Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, and Ohio. 

Partnerships with Infection Control and Quality Organizations

Another general best-practice trend among states is partnering with formal infection control and quality organizations for weekly calls. Also, know that many states have specially-trained and equipped National Guard teams on-call to disinfect nursing homes. 

Infection Control Surveys - Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Montana, and Nevada

These states are conducting infection control surveys in nursing homes using risk-based criteria to determine facility selection and scheduling. Colorado and Montana are doing these as often as weekly.

Nursing Home Strike Teams - Ohio, New Jersey, and Maryland 

Many states are creating strike teams specific to testing, PPE, and infection control. Ohio, New Jersey, and Maryland have strike teams focused specifically on nursing homes.

In Maryland, the Office of Governor Larry Hogan created statewide strike teams to provide on-site medical triage, supplies, and equipment to overburdened nursing homes. Teams include National Guard, state and local health department representatives, EMS clinicians, and hospital doctors, and nurses. 

The Office of Congressman Josh Gettheimer in New Jersey is sponsoring Outside Support (SOS) Act of 2020 legislation to provide immediate support to nursing homes, long term care facilities experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19 in New Jersey – and across the country.

Advanced Entrance Screening - California and New Mexico 

Two Palm Nursing Center, Inc. in California created a pre-entry, outside screening and infection prevention station for all health care workers and visitors: 

• All are screened one at a time for COVID-19 signs and symptoms
• Following, they proceed to an outside "washing station" where they sanitize their hands and don PPE, including gowns, N95s, and face shields.
• Lastly, they step on a bleaching mat to ensure they do not track contaminants from the outside into the facility.

Similarly, the New Mexico Department of Health is considering mandating three additional requirements for long term care facilities to include:

• Anti-viral shoe spray for all individuals entering facilities
• Clothing changes for all staff upon facility entry and exit
• Reporting deaths in their data collection portal

Secret Shoppers for Hand Hygiene - District of Columbia (DC)

The DCHCA implemented Secret Shoppers for Hand Hygiene program. Understandably, with fatigue comes forgetfulness. But, we can all help each other by monitoring and reminding.

COVID Safety Officers (CSOs) - Florida

Orlando Health System implemented COVID Safety Officers (CSOs), who cover every shift to observe employees donning and doffing PPE, performing appropriate hand hygiene, and assuring that all other infection control and prevention policies/procedures are followed.

Fresh Air - Georgia

The Georgia Department of Health reminds us of common-sense practices like opening windows to let fresh air in and giving residents some outdoor time.

With the extra $600 in unemployment checks, many found it was more economical to NOT work, which only added to the COVID-19 staffing crisis for healthcare providers. Now that the boost is gone, applicants may be lining up for re-employment, providing much-needed relief to senior care facilities.

While you may be tempted to hire fast, we challenge you to hire smart. Why? Because hiring smart versus fast may have caused you to come up short-staffed in the first place. And now is definitely not the time to hire the type of people that will flake out or burn out.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, we’ve learned that our world has changed. Senior care/living facilities drastically changed. Along with chaos, change can bring wisdom. It’s become even more critical for you to hire staff who have good judgment and are ready for the long haul.

If you look at COVID-19 as an opportunity to restart your businesses, you can start by hiring right the first time. When you take time to really assess your applicants before hiring, you intentionally create stronger teams that fit better and are more productive together.

As you hear us say often, technology can help. And our primeFORCE application has some unique screening features you will want to consider for your ‘new’ business.

Here are two webinars to tell you more.

Live Webinar, August 25: Using Data to Fine Tune Your Staffing

• Provides strategies for hiring staff with the goal of retention. These hot tips can reduce turnover by up to 20%!

Webinar On-Demand: When Staffing Takes a 180, Assess Don’t Guess

• Discusses incorporating the Judgment Index (based on the Hartman Value Profile) into your applicant assessment process.

If you would like to find out how our primeFORCE technology can help, get in touch.

While many public health emergency waivers related to COVID-19 will carry forward to October as part of the emergency extension, the Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) reporting waiver will not.. This means, your 2Q data is due August 14, 2020.

Other good to know details about your staffing data:

• Current Five-Star Reports will remain frozen with the December 31, 2019 staffing data
• 1Q data will NOT be used to calculate staffing star
• Providers auto-downgraded to one staffing star based on December 31, 2019, data will show ‘not available’ as current rating
• Five-Star Report with staffing measure will be updated in October with your 2Q data

Despite the waiver, 60% of facilities still reported 1Q data. CMS also encourages the submission of retroactive data, even though it will not be used to calculate ratings. With the correlation between increased staffing and better control of the COVID-19 spread, CMS seems firm on getting PBJ reporting back on schedule.

The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) reacted by reminding the CMS "that the fight against this virus is far from over for our long term care providers, and they need continued support from our federal government. We hope CMS recognizes this and the urgent need to prioritize resources to protect long term care staff and residents."

With your resources and budgets being stretched, the efficiencies technology can bring are more critical than ever.

So, how can we help?

PrimeVIEW with PBJ reporting

• Generate and edit PBJ reports in a snap
• Quickly predicting your next staffing star
• Oversee your staff to patient ratios in near-real-time

• • Expedite the process to fill open positions and onboard
  • Utilize Hartman Value Profile to find people of sound judgment

Get in touch if we can help – we understand the demand on your time, we'll be brief!

Amy Stewart with Provider Magazine recently offered eight simple tips for "Assisting Staff through Adversity." We've summarized these into a quick-scan infographic for your convenience. Click to download and print the PDF.

Expediting critical care decisions during and after COVID.

We’re following the headlines every day and of course, it’s hard to NOT be in the moment right now. Is your data in the moment with you?

Here are five ways to evaluate if your data is in the moment.

1. Can you view your most critical data in real time?
2. Can you access it via a mobile app?
3. Can your system easily integrate data from other partners?
4. Can it help alert you and easily trend diagnoses/symptoms – like COVID-19?
5. Can you cost-out incoming patients in just a few clicks?

If you answered NO, your data is not at your fingertips to help you through COVID, and it can't help you mitigate the CMS-mandated changes to come.

So how do you get ready for a post-COVID, return to normal – or something close to it?

• Seek out a tech partner who is looking toward the future, while you deal with the ‘moment.’
• Use an app that integrates multi-source, critical data for daily meetings and action-required updates.
• Build a team with varying skill sets to evaluate clinical performance alongside your revenue return.
• Zero in on those referral partners who fit your clinical and financial success patterns.

Want to hear more? Check out our Centers of Excellence webinar series led by Clint Maun.

The first, Using Data to Determine Your Clinical Niche, is on July 29.

Additional sessions include:

• August 25 – Using Data to Fine Tune Your Staffing
• September 29 – Using Data to Determine Your Reimbursement Niche
• October 27 – Calibrating Your Data for Marketing and Referrals

Register for all four and make your way toward becoming a Center of Excellence!