HFAM Update
Current Surge, Vaccine Mandate Webinar, and Policy and Procedure Templates
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Friends:
Thank you for all you are doing to provide quality care to Marylanders in need and to support your teams during this critical time of the current surge. In all of Maryland, across all sectors, we face a health emergency. I wish I could say it would get better soon, but our experience together over the last two years and with previous surges tell us otherwise. Together we have been focusing on staffing, census, and available beds given staffing shortages. This week many in our sector are now dealing with increased staff and residents testing positive --- and center layout changes in creating COVID and Non-Covid sections. If this turns out to be a prolonged surge, we may be called upon to change layouts as we did two years ago -- Observation, COVID Positive, and Recovered; let’s pray not, that would of course greatly reduce capacity in our sector and our ability to aid in hospital patient overflow. Time will tell. In all of this, we are together, and we are keeping government leaders informed, CLICK HERE for the latest Maryland Government Leader Update.
Finally, please know that HFAM, LeadingAge Maryland, and LifeSpan together are working with state leaders on possibly amending CRISP reporting definitions around available bed capacity to better and more specifically identify SNF staffed bed capacity (given Covid positive units and available staff) during this surge. Stay tuned.
As Always:
- Focus on what is in your control and not what is out of your control.
- Let’s get those boosters and the flu vaccine in the arms of people.
- Overcommunicate – with residents, patients, families, staff, and government partners.
- Adapt and innovate.
- Rely on your partnerships.
- Speak up when you need help.
- Double efforts on infectious disease protocols, training, and operations.
- Take and document your action; keep a timeline.
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CLICK HERE for the Dr. Katz Video, and please see the Donning and Doffing Checklist we have been sharing.
Be well,
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Joe DeMattos
President and CEO
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OSHA's Vaccine and Testing Mandate Now Applies to LTC:
Find out what steps to take before the January 9 effective date
AHCA Webinar January 6, 2022 - 3:00 PM EST
Sarah Skubas, attorney with Jackson Lewis, will outline the steps providers need to take for OSHA compliance and how this interacts with the CMS staff vaccine requirement being implemented in 25 states and the District of Columbia.
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Updated Vaccine Mandate Template Policies and Procedures
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released guidance enforcing its Interim Final Rule issued November 5, 2021, mandating the vaccine in health care settings in specific states. For more information on the guidance and states where it applies, please reference this recent blog post.
To help members in the impacted states comply with the vaccine mandate, AHCA/NCAL has updated its template policies and procedures, available on the COVID-19 website under the Vaccines section. Additional resources to help encourage vaccine uptake, including new handouts on boosters, can also be found on the #getvaccinated website
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Want to see previous HFAM updates?
Visit our website to view all previous HFAM alerts, as well as guidance
from our federal and state partners.
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