COVID-19 UPDATE #281

January 20, 2023

AMENDED: Reminder to all LTC Facilities: Definition of COVID-19 Outbreak Changed January 1, 2023

COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 infection remains a nationally notifiable condition and the Department of Health (DOH) has adopted the new definition for Washington State effective January 1, 2023. An outbreak consists of the following:

• ≥1 Facility-acquired COVID-19 case in a resident and/or
• ≥3 Suspect, probable or confirmed COVID-19 case in staff with epi-linkage AND no other more likely sources of exposure for at least one of the cases

Questions? Please contact your local health jurisdictions or email the Department of Health.

Attention Nursing Homes! Critical Information Required to Continue the Nurse Aide Waiver with CMS

To remain in compliance with the Nurse Aide 1135 waiver, Washington State is required to provide monthly reports to CMS. 

As a part of the report process, the state needs to compile information from each CMS certified nursing home on a monthly basis. If you completed this survey last month, please complete this survey again for January. The state is required to compile this information and send it to CMS on a monthly basis.

Please assist in this process by completing the three question survey. If we are unable to provide the requested information to CMS, Washington State may lose this critically important 1135 waiver and the ability to allow NARs to continue working in a nursing home beyond four months while they complete the certification process.

CDC, FDA to Investigate Weak Signal for Stroke in Seniors with Pfizer Bivalent Vaccine

The CDC and FDA issued preliminary findings about monitoring the bivalent COVID-19​ vaccine’s safety that​ discusses an initial increase of strokes in their safety monitoring data for the Pfizer bivalent COVID-19 vaccine. As part of routine surveillance, the CDC detected a preliminary signal for stroke in people ages 65 and older who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 bivalent mRNA vaccine. Read more.

Basic Caregiving Training Emergency Rule Refiled | AL

The Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission (NQAC) is amending specific training requirements for:

• Register Nurse (RN)
• Nursing Assistant Registered (NAR)
• Home Care Aide (HCA)

These changes became effective immediately on January 6, 2023, when filed as WSR 23-03-014. NQCA is refiling these emergency rules to allow a registered nurse delegator to delegate nursing tasks to a NAR or HCA based on training requirements established by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). Read more.

Now Available: Enhanced Barrier Precautions Webinar Recording and Tools | SNF

New CDC resources are now available to assist nursing homes with the implementation of Enhanced Barrier Precautions. As a reminder, this is a new CDC infection prevention and control recommendation to protect residents from the threat of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). Resources include the continuing education (CE) webinar recording and slides from November 15, 2022, a fillable or printable pre-implementation planning tool, a fillable or printable observations tool, an observations tool summary spreadsheet, and a template letter you can modify for nursing home leadership. View resources.

CMS QI Voices: Improving COVID-19 Outcomes in Nursing Homes Across America Audio Series Available | SNF

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Improvement (QI) Voices: Improving COVID-19 Outcomes in Nursing Homes Across America is an audio series that gives you a closer look at the projects and the people who are improving health care quality and outcomes. These brief conversations include detailed show notes for even more insights into the process behind health care quality improvement, and how you might adapt these to your own organization. Explore this series.

NSHN Reporting Requirements for Q1 2023 | SNF

It is crucial to report current COVID-19 vaccination status to NHSN. The up to date definition applies when reporting data through the NSHN COVID-19 Vaccination Modules and the Resident Impact and Facility Capacity (RIFC) Pathway for first quarter (Q1) 2023.  

Individuals are considered up to date with the COVID-19 vaccines during the surveillance period from December 26, 2022, through March 26, 2023, for the purpose of NHSN reporting if they meet one of the following criteria:  

• ​Received an updated (bivalent) booster dose; or 
• Completed their primary series less than two months ago 

As of Q1 2023, monovalent boosters are no longer included in the up to date definition and individuals are only considered up to date if they meet one of the two criteria above. You can find more information about the up to date definition in the CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccination Modules Key Terms guide​.

CMS Issues Third Edition of the QRP COVID-19 Public Reporting Tip Sheet | SNF

The updated SNF QRP Public Reporting (PR) Tip Sheet includes the following updates: 

• Adoption of a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) measure, Influenza Vaccination Coverage Among Healthcare Personnel (National Quality Forum (NQF) #0431), beginning with the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 SNF QRP.  
• Inaugural reporting of the COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage among Healthcare Personnel (HCP), reported through CDC NHSN, and SNF Healthcare Associated-Infections (HAI) Requiring Hospitalization claims-based quality measures (QMs).  
• Definition of the quarters for reporting of claims-based QMs displayed on Care Compare and the Provider Data Catalog (PDC).  

The tip sheet also discusses the revised data submission threshold related to the SNF QRP annual payment update. Read more.

Additional Resources

WHCA continues to post resources and information on our website as they become available. If you have questions or need additional information, please call the WHCA office at (800) 562-6170.