“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
Coach John Wooden.
Thank you for all you and your teams are doing! We made it through a tough week, we all know it will get tougher. As we shared yesterday:
Make no mistake, for the next several weeks in one way or another, we will be sprinting a marathon—no small undertaking. We know you and your teams are up to the challenge. Truly.
Reminders:
- It is a MUST that SNFs now create separate wings, units, or floors by moving current residents to handle admissions from the hospitals, and to keep current residents separate, if possible. We have asked the state for a waiver of the 30-day involuntary discharge rule to accommodate the clinically prudent separation of patients and residents.
- Proactively over communicate with staff, patients, residents and families.
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Updated COVID-19 Resource Request Process
As we have previously shared, The Maryland Department of Health (MDH) is working closely with the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) to organize emergency suppliers of equipment and services that will aid in the response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Thank you to all of you and your staff for providing these essential services. Please direct questions to your local emergency management contact.
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Medline Webinar: Today at 2:00 PM EST
Join healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic in some of the hardest hit regions across the country. Learn from those who have experienced an outbreak as they share practical tips on how they’re responding on this
webinar
.
COVID-19 Response: Best Practices and Hope from Healthcare
Providers Experiencing an Outbreak
Friday, April 3, 1 PM CST/2 PM EST
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PharmaScript Webinar: April 15 at 2:00 PM EST
Join PharmScript, LLC. on Wednesday, April 15th, from 2:00-3:00 pm EDT. The webinar will be presented by Sue LaGrange, Director of Education, along with Lisa Thomson, Director of Education Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, for Pathway Health Services, Inc. Sue and Lisa will share the following learning objectives:
- Identify the components of infection control and prevention surveillance program to identify symptoms and contain infections related specifically to respiratory illness
- Identify important factors in a facility outbreak management program
- Provide the ability to review your facilities readiness for influenza type illness community outbreak including COVID-19
Infection Prevention Surveillance and Monitoring during COVID-19
Wed, Apr 15, 2020 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
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BENHA Approval of Out of State Administrators
BENHA's legal counsel has determined that the official definition of "healthcare practitioner" has been redetermined to include Maryland LNHA's, as it relates to Governor Hogan's Public Order "Relating to Various Health Care Matters" which was issued by the Governor on 3/16/2020.
Therefore, out-of-state LNHA's are permitted to work as the administrators of Maryland nursing home facilities, provided they submit a provisional license application within 10 days after first working at a Maryland nursing home as the administrator of record.
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Every Interaction is a Risk
COVID-19 spreads principally person-to-person. Every interaction between people increases the risk of spread, particularly now that the virus is in most areas of the United States.
The goal is to minimize the number of interactions with residents.
This
AHCA/NCAL guidance
provides some ideas on how to achieve this goal. It includes:
- Reducing the number of various (non-essential) people entering the building;
- Targeting the number of interactions with residents by:
- Reducing the number of different staff entering a resident’s room
- Increasing efficiency of tasks when entering in a resident’s room to decrease the number of times staff enter
It’s a simple formula for how spread happens – the more interactions that happen with a variety of people, the greater the chance of spread. So, continue to creatively reduce the number of interactions between people and stop the spread of this deadly virus.
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CMS Reports Frequent Incorrect Use of PPE
AHCA/NCAL has heard from CMS that a common theme they are finding during COVID-19 infection control focused surveys are PPE not being used correctly, including donning and doffing procedures. Surveyors are having staff demonstrate handwashing and donning and doffing of PPE.
We encourage you to review with your teams the appropriate way to apply and remove all PPE, including gloves, gowns, masks, and eye protection. Performing observations yourself can be helpful to prepare staff for surveyor observation and to quickly correct any practices needing improvement.
- These documents can be printed and posted in your center to ensure your staff are aware of how to appropriately don PPE.
- These documents can be printed off and posted in your center to ensure your staff are aware of how to appropriately doff PPE.
- The following video explains how to do hand hygiene and donning/doffing PPE appropriately.
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Compassionate Care Amidst the COVID-19 Crisis
Ensuring compassionate care in the midst of this pandemic, when human, equipment and financial resources are significantly strained, when we are balancing professional and personal struggles, can be a challenge. Advance care planning or end-of-life conversations can be difficult in the best of circumstances, let alone the current environment with restrictions, heightened emotions, and scarce resources.
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COVID-19 Case Study (Not Maryland)
Please see this
Case Study that HFAM wrote after being contacted by a SNF provider in another part of the country.
Please review this case study and share with your teams -- it includes critical insight and real time experience.
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Child Care for Essential Personnel
Maryland Family Network (MFN) is partnering with the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) to make it fast and easy for essential personnel to find safe quality child care during the State of Emergency.
Maryland’s child care providers are essential to stemming the spread of and finding a cure for the COVID-19 pandemic. Our region is teeming with the Nation’s top researchers, doctors, and policy makers. As the Coronavirus continues to spread and demands on these and other essential personnel grows, they need to know their children are safe in order to stay focused on keeping the rest of us safe and healthy.
Visit this
site
to learn more or call 877-261-0060 to locate child care.
While all child care is closed for the general public, child care is
not closed for essential personnel. In addition to new programs being developed by the State, MSDE recently launched a program to allow child care providers that would otherwise be closed to open to serve children of essential personnel exclusively. There will be additional child care providers approved under this new provision and available to provide child care.
LOCATE will have the listing of approved sites for these services for your stakeholder's staff to identify child care services.
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Did you miss HFAM's previous alerts?
Visit our
website
to view all previous HFAM alerts, as well as guidance
from our federal and state partners.
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Additional Resources and Guidance
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Thank you.
We cannot thank you enough for the dedication and diligence in doing all that you can for the residents in your communities. HFAM continues to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic with our state and national partners and will do all we can to support you during this time.
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