New National Training Program to Strengthen Nursing Home Infection Control Practices

From CMS:

Today, CMS is implementing an unprecedented national nursing home training program for frontline nursing home staff and nursing home management. The training is designed to stop the spread of COVID-19. It will be available immediately to staff of America’s 15,400 Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing homes and focuses on critical topics like infection control and prevention, appropriate screening of visitors, effective cohorting of residents, safe admission and transfer of residents, and the proper use of PPE.

Training Specifics

The CMS Targeted COVID-19 Training for Frontline Nursing Home Staff & Management is available now, with five specific modules designed for frontline clinical staff and 10 designed for nursing home management. The training will be available on the CMS Quality, Safety & Education Portal.

To ensure nursing home staff are aware of the training and availing themselves of it, CMS is directing Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) – CMS’ nationwide quality improvement contractors – to include the training in the action plans that QIOs develop in collaboration with each nursing home they assist. This will help ensure that nursing homes are building the training into their existing quality improvement efforts.

Finally, while the training announced today is comprehensive, CMS and CDC will also have subject matter experts available on bi-weekly webinars from August 27, 2020, through January 7, 2021, from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. ET, to answer questions. Registration is required for these Question & Answer sessions. Participants can register on the Zoom webinar registration page.

If a nursing home’s staff is unsure which training module best meets their needs, CMS is offering an online self-assessment tool at www.qioprogram.org to help them identify their needs and suggest the appropriate training modules that best reflect those needs. A certificate of completion is offered for each completed training course.