Infection Prevention And Control In Nursing Homes: In its June 16, 2023 letter to the United States Congress, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) stated, “Despite years of government reports sounding the alarm about infection control lapses in nursing homes, and despite evidence showing that focused attention from the federal government can improve infection rates in hospitals, there remains an astonishing lack of attention to infection prevention and control (IPC) in nursing homes.”
The CDC estimates that there are approximately 687,000 healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in acute care hospitals each year in the United States, with approximately 72,000 hospital patients dying during their hospitalizations. The CDC estimates that there are between one million and three million HAIs infections each year in long-term care facilities.
The letter states: “To prevent poor outcomes in nursing homes, a full-time dedicated IP [Infection Preventionist] is needed to develop plans and procedures to prevent transmission of infectious agents, conduct surveillance and epidemiologic investigations, and enforce infection control standards. For too long IPC has been under-resourced and put on the back burner. Although nursing staff is essential to patient care, they must rely on the specialized training and expertise of IPs to oversee facility-wide infection prevention. Lessons learned from COVID-19 have proven that IPC needs to be a priority for facilities, and having a certified, full-time IP is an important step to providing residents with the care they deserve.”
“Adequate funding of nursing home surveys is essential for the future safety of residents. Additionally, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) should require standardized training in infection prevention and control to ensure that surveyors have the basic content knowledge to hold facilities to evidence-based practices and be as consistent as possible.”
“Federal efforts to train staff in nursing homes have at times been limited due to failure to understand that the practice of infection prevention and control requires specialized knowledge. Minimum competency requirements for individuals providing training in infection prevention and control should be a Long-Term Care Certification in Infection Prevention (LTC-CIP) or Certification in Infection Prevention and Control (CIC) credential.”
The letter concluded: “As Congress considers improvements in nursing home safety, APIC hopes you will take steps to address this very well-documented area of risk to nursing home residents: infection prevention and control deficiencies.”
If you or a loved one may have been injured as a result of medical malpractice in a nursing home in the United States due to a nursing home infection, nursing home fall, nursing home aspiration, nursing home neglect, nursing home negligence, nursing home abuse, nursing home under-staffing, or the nursing home failing to properly care for a vulnerable adult, you should promptly find a medical malpractice lawyer in your state (nursing home claim lawyer) who may investigate your nursing home medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a nursing home medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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