Comagine Health would like to encourage skilled nursing facilities to utilize the All-Cause Harm Prevention in Nursing Homes change package prepared by Telligen and offered by the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program.
The change package offers key points to aid in preventing all types of infections for nursing home residents. It recommends educating staff on the following infection prevention precautions and testing for competency:
Standard precautions
- Hand hygiene
- Proper selection and use of personal protective equipment
- Safe injection practices
- Respiratory hygiene/cough etiquette
- Environmental cleaning and disinfection
- Reprocessing of reusable medical equipment
Transmission-based precautions
- Contact Precautions – For patients with known or suspected pathogens that can be transmitted through contact transmission
- Droplet Precautions – For patients with known or suspected pathogens transmitted by respiratory droplets from coughing, sneezing or talking
- Airborne Precautions – For patients with known or suspected pathogens transmitted by airborne route (e.g. COVID-19, measles, tuberculosis, chicken pox, shingles)
In addition to the standard and transmission-based precautions, there are also:
- Aerosolized Precautions – Used during procedures and patient care activities that are likely to generate splashes or sprays of blood, body fluids and secretions in patients with known or suspected pathogens
- Blood-Bourne Precautions – Use for known or suspected pathogens transmitted through exposure to blood-containing fluids and products
Tools to assist with implementing policies around adherence to these precautions include:
- Comagine Health Hand Hygiene Observation Tool
- CDC Environmental Checklist for Monitoring Terminal Cleaning
For more information, contact Improvement Advisor Connie Lowder.