The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)
Resident Impact and Facility Capacity pathway to include four new questions relating to the use of Point of Care testing. These include:
- Does the LTCF have an in-house point-of-care test machine (capability to perform COVID-19 testing within your facility)? Yes/No Answer
- Since the last date of data entry in the Module, how many COVID-19 point-of-care tests has the LTCF performed on residents? Enter a specific number
- Since the last date of data entry in the Module, how many COVID-19 point-of-care tests has the LTCF performed on staff and/or facility personnel? Enter a specific number
- Based on this week’s inventory, do you have enough supplies to test all staff and/or facility personnel for COVID-19 using the point-of-care test machine? Yes/No Answer
The CDC also added important information, including:
- Clarification on CONFIRMED Notes section to address differences in testing devices and clarity of positive COVID-19 test results; and
- How to recognize and report reinfections to align with patients who have persistent or recurring positive test results.
The NHSN will host a webinar entitled
NHSN Updates for LTC COVID-19 Module & responses to Common Module Questions on Thursday, September 3 at 1 pm Eastern. Participants can register and review archived webinars
here.