HHS recently issued a report that estimated about 1 in 4, or 2,568, for-profit nursing homes do not meet federal requirements for infection prevention.
The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology said in an Aug. 21 news release that it supports the agency's call for CMS to take steps to close this gap. Steps include following up with specific nursing homes who are not in compliance to ensure they take corrective action, and instruct state survey agencies to focus on whether nursing homes have a staff member dedicated to infection prevention with specialized training before hiring.
APIC President Tania Bubb also said CMS could take things further.
"With current laws that don't require dedicated infection preventionists in nursing homes and don't require routine surveillance of healthcare-associated infections, we are in the dark on what the overall rates of infection are in these facilities," she said in the release. "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."