Nursing Homes Struggling With Infection Control

The coronavirus outbreak at a Washington nursing home that has resulted in the death of seven residents has brought focus to the critical need for strict infection control policies in these long-term care facilities. However, nursing homes have been struggling for years to uphold basic infection control protocols to stop the spread of pathogens.

Since 2017, government health inspectors have cited nursing homes for poor infection prevention practices more frequently than for any other violations, CNN reports.  More than 60% of U.S. nursing homes received citations for one or more infection-control deficiencies. Even among long-term care centers with the maximum government rating for overall quality, four in 10 have been cited for an infection-control lapse.

Commonly cited violations include workers not washing their hands as they move from treating one resident to the next, or failing to wear gloves, masks, and gowns when in rooms with contagious patients. Health inspectors classify they violations as minor and not warranting fines. The minor citations usually have limited impact on a facility’s overall rating.

However, these minor violations can be deadly to long-term care facility residents as they are likely to have underlying health conditions and low immunity to common illnesses such as influenza. As many as 3.8 million infections occur in nursing homes each year and are responsible for almost 388,000 resident deaths.

Despite employee training, these violations continue due to frequent staff turnover as new or temporary workers are less familiar with a facility’s infection-control practices. In addition, many sick workers do not stay home when they are ill as they have limited time off and do not want to lose pay.

CMM offers best practices for infection prevention in long-term care facilities and overall maintenance of a nursing home.