HHS Inspector General Raises Concerns About Infection Prevention in Nursing Homes

Previous reports have called for nursing homes to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic to improve their compliance with infection prevention and control requirements and staffing. Now, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a new report estimating that, “2,568 for-profit nursing homes nationwide (approximately one in four) may not have complied with federal requirements pertaining to infection preventionists during our audit period,” resulting in potential health and safety risks for residents and staff of the homes.

In turn, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) supports the report’s call for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to take the two steps recommended in the report:

1. Follow up with specific nursing homes who may not be compliant with federal requirements and ensure that they take corrective actions. 
2. Instruct state survey agencies to focus on whether nursing homes have designated an infection preventionist (IP) who has specialized training before taking the job.

APIC President Tania Bubb emphasized the importance of having a dedicated IP, rather than a designated IP, at each nursing home. “Without someone dedicated to the job of infection prevention, the job remains ‘other duties as assigned’ for existing overburdened nursing home staff who are designated to do this job in addition to their other work,” she said. 

The full HHS Inspector General Report can be found here.