CMS has recently announced its goal to provide assistance to 3,000 nursing homes with infection control issues. The National Library of Medicine even states that “infection control management in nursing homes have been suboptimal with antibiotics being overutilized and 40% of nursing homes receiving deficiency citations each year”. Elderly nursing home residents are highly susceptible to infection. Nursing home facilities count for 765,000 to 2.8 million cases of infections annually. This is a prominent issue that with better management and solutions, can save thousands if not millions of lives.
Managing infections in nursing home facilities is difficult due to multiple shared spaces including dining rooms, activity centers, and bedrooms. However, although difficult, it is extremely necessary and contributes to the quality of care provided. CMS has recently revoked its guidance from the pandemic titled “Enhanced Enforcement for Infection Control Deficiencies” and replaced it with “Strengthened Enhanced Enforcement for Infection Control Deficiencies”. As infection control has remained a continuous issue in nursing homes, more strict precautions are necessary in order to bring the ease of the spread of infections to a halt. By taking more aggressive and direct enforcement actions, there is hope for improvements in infection control management.
A nursing home facility’s main goal should be to provide quality and superb care to its residents. If you or a loved one reside in a nursing home and feel as though you are not protected or given a high-caliber level of care, reach out to Dougherty, Leventhal, and Price today. Our seasoned attorneys aim to fight for justice for residents of nursing home facilities that fall victim to poor quality care, abuse, or neglect. Remember… Injury? Call DLP! (570) C-A-L-L-D-L-P.
Works Cited
Marselas, Kimberly. “CMS: Lapses in infection control, vaccine compliance to garner ‘aggressive’ enforcement”, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, 4 April 2023, https://www.mcknights.com/news/cms-lapses-in-infection-control-vaccine-compliance-to-garner-aggressive-enforcement/. Accessed 4 April 2023.
Stone, Patricia et. al. “Nursing Home Infection Control Program Characteristics, CMS Citations and Implementation of Antibiotic Stewardship Policies: A National Study”, National Library of Medicine, 28 May 2018, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5974557/. Accessed 4 April 2023.
