Nursing homes with 100 or more residents, or that provide some specialty services, should have at least one infection preventionist on-site to manage COVID-19 care, according to federal recommendations released in June.
Larger facilities and operations that provide on-site ventilator or hemodialysis services should employ a full-time, trained staff member in that position, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a recently updated guidance.
This position is necessary to cover all needed aspects of COVID-19 infection control. Those include developing policies and procedures, offering competency-based staff training and auditing protocol adherence, it said.
Also in late June, the CDC expanded upon its list of chronic health conditions that put people at risk for notably severe outcomes from COVID-19.
While risk increases with age, people of any age are more likely to be hospitalized, admitted to an intensive care unit or face health complications and death when they have certain conditions.
Those include the following: obesity with a body mass index of 30 or higher; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; chronic kidney disease; serious heart conditions, such as heart failure and coronary artery disease; sickle cell disease; type 2 diabetes; and immunocompromised state from solid organ transplant.
From the September 2020 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
