On this page: Background | Hot Topics | Educational Resources | Data & Reporting | Regulatory Resources | Collaborations
Background
Long-term care facilities may help with medical and non-medical care to support a person's health or personal needs. The care can be for a short or long term. Long-term care settings include:
- Assisted Living Facilities
- Inpatient Hospice
- Nursing Homes/Skilled Nursing Facilities
- Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities
- Rehabilitation Centers
Special considerations for infection prevention in these settings
- More people in the U.S. are living in long-term care facilities, with complex medical needs and use more medical devices, as well as antibiotics. Residents often move in and out, so sharing medical history is key. This includes antibiotic use, devices, past infections, and risk factors.
- CDC Interfacility Transfer Form - The patient transfer form helps make it easier to share information when patients are moved between different places for care. Hospitals and groups focused on making patient safety better can change and use this form to fit their needs.
VDH Infection Prevention and Control Assessments
Our team is available to conduct no cost, consultative, non-regulatory, and non-punitive onsite assessments for infection prevention and control (IPC) programs in Virginia.
Benefits of Collaborating with VDH for IPC Assessments:
- The VDH Team can help strengthen your facility’s IPC program and activities
- IPC Program improvements make your facility safer for patients and staff
- VDH experts can answer your questions and provide education and training at no cost
What to Expect at your IPC Assessment:
- Before the in-person assessment, VDH will ask you some demographic questions to understand your facility better
- During the visit, VDH staff will tour your facility to learn and observe IPC practices
- After the visit, VDH staff will:
- Provide a written summary of facility strengths and recommendations for IPC improvement
- Offer follow-up discussion
- Supply resources and education tailored to your needs
Hot Topics
Nursing Home Infection Prevention Quick Guides: New series of resources is for infection preventionists in nursing homes.
Educational Resources
General resources for long-term care
- CDC Long-Term Care Settings website
- HQIN Resources
Assisted Living Facilities and Nursing Homes
- Statewide Program in Infection Control and Epidemiology (SPICE) – skilled nursing and assisted living courses and resources
- CDC Nursing Home Infection Preventionist Training Course
- Virginia Department of Social Services – resources for licensed assisted living facilities and adult day care centers
- Infection Prevention and Control Training Plan - includes a foundational infection prevention and control curriculum intended for all staff. Additional optional courses are available for enrichment for all staff and additional optional courses for supervisors and leaders in infection prevention and control.
- Infection Prevention and Control Train-the-Trainer Resource Binder
- FAQs: Communicating Medical Information During Resident Transfer
- Guidance: Sick Staff (for Administrators)
- Guidance: Sick Staff (for Providers and Staff)
Return to the Resources Hub to view all healthcare settings.
Infections and organism webpages with resources specific to long-term care settings:
- Bloodborne Pathogens
- Candida auris
- Carbapenem-Resistant Organisms (CRO)
- Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) / UTI
- Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI)
- Clostridioides difficile
- COVID-19
- Group A Streptococcus
- Staphylococcus Aureus
- Scabies & Bed Bugs
Return to the Resources Hub to view all infections and organisms.
Healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance (HAI/AR) topic webpages with resources specific to long-term care settings:
Return to the Resources Hub to view all HAI/AR topics.
Data & Reporting
- CMS Care Compare – public information about the quality of care at CMS-certified nursing homes including rehab services or Medicare-certified hospices; use to find nursing homes or hospices and compare facilities
- COVID-19 Nursing Home Data (CMS) – Resident and staff COVID-19 vaccination data are available by nursing home and state
National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)
- CMS-certified long-term care facilities are required to report staff and resident COVID-19 vaccination data through the National Healthcare Safety Network’s COVID-19 / Respiratory Pathogens Module.
- Additional CMS COVID-19 reporting requirements for the NHSN Surveillance Pathways module are in effect through 12/31/2024.
- NHSN Long-Term Care Facilities Component (CDC) – resources for nursing homes, skilled nursing, chronic care, and intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disability to track infections and prevention process measures
VDH Surveillance Resources
- FAQs: Surveillance
- FAQs: How to Collect Specimens
- Guidance: Outbreak Identification
- Log: GI Illness (Staff)
- Log: GI Illness (Resident)
- Log: Respiratory Illness (Staff)
- Log: Respiratory Illness (Resident)
- Log: Resident Illness (general)
- Log: Monthly Infection Surveillance Tracking
Virginia Communicable Disease & Outbreak Reporting Requirements
General Reportable Disease Requirements
- Virginia Reportable Disease List
- Outlines diseases and conditions (including outbreaks) that are reportable to the local health department by physicians, directors of medical care facilities (such as nursing homes), and directors of laboratories.
- Assisted living facilities are required to call the health department whenever they suspect an outbreak may be occurring but are not required to report individual cases of the reportable diseases/conditions. If an ALF resident has a reportable disease/condition, his/her physician is responsible for reporting to the local health department.
- Part of the Regulations for Disease Reporting and Control
- Confidential Morbidity Report Form (Paper version)
- Suspected Outbreak Reporting Portal
- A variance to the Disease Reporting and Control Regulations became effective on April 4, 2022 to exempt Virginia physicians, laboratories, and directors of medical facilities from reporting negative or inconclusive SARS-CoV-2 antigen test results and all SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing results. See the VDH clinician letter from April 5, 2022 for more information.
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- Results that entities should continue to report:
- All (positive, negative, and inconclusive) Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests (NAAT)
- All POSITIVE antigen tests
- LTCF COVID-19 Test Results Reporting Requirements (4/16/2022)
- VDH Portal for Reporting Point-of-Care COVID-19 Lab Results Instructions: This portal will assist testing sites in meeting the requirement of the CARES Act to report every diagnostic and screening test performed to detect SARS-CoV-2 or to diagnose a possible case of COVID-19. This portal allows the rapid entry of person-level test results for positive results. Non-required test options have been disabled from the VDH point of care portal. All COVID-19 test results should be reported to VDH within 24 hours. Testing sites that are not conducting POC tests should report results per standard protocols.
- Results that entities should continue to report:
Regulatory Resources
- Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS)
- Virginia Department of Health
- Virginia Department of Social Services (DSS) – Assisted Living Facilities page
- Virginia Regulatory Town Hall – source of information about proposed changes to Virginia’s regulations; includes online forums where the public can make comments on proposed regulations
Last Updated: September 24, 2024