Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS has posted the latest COVID-19 data for nursing homes – Week Ending November 8, 2020.

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Today, in advance of the approaching holiday season, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is urging nursing home staff, residents and visitors to follow established guidelines for visitation and adherence to the core principles of infection prevention. These guidelines include remaining six feet apart…… Continue reading CMS Urging Nursing Homes to Follow Established COVID Guidelines This Holiday Season

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare On Tuesday, November 17, 2020 CMS publicly recognized the 1,092 nursing homes at which 50% or more of their staff have completed CMS training designed to help staff combat the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in nursing homes. CMS applauds these facilities for taking this…… Continue reading CMS Releases Nursing Home COVID-19 Training Data with Urgent Call to Action

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS has posted an updated COVID-19 county positivity rate spreadsheet – November 17, 2020. Remember that you must test residents and staff based on your county’s positivity rate.  If you need help to determine the testing frequency required, access those guidelines.  Archived county positivity rates are found here.  

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare “SARS-CoV-2 infection is transmitted predominately by respiratory droplets generated when people cough, sneeze, sing, talk, or breathe. CDC recommends community use of masks, specifically non-valved multi-layer cloth masks, to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Masks are primarily intended to reduce the emission of virus-laden droplets (“source control”), which…… Continue reading CDC: Community Use of Cloth Masks to Control the Spread of SARS-CoV-2

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Staffing Playbook: Actions to Address Healthcare Worker (HCW) Shortages during COVID-19 consolidates several references aimed at addressing pandemic-related staffing challenges.  The second page of the Playbook has action steps and resources.

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The Toolkit for Nursing Homes Using Point-of-Care SARS-COV-2 Testing was updated November 10, 2020. Those updates are: Added HHS BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 Ag Card link to the Background section from press release. Updated the Nursing Home Data section to include specifics for the different antigen tests available…… Continue reading Updated Toolkit for NHs Using Point-of-Care Devices for SARS-COV-2 Testing

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare MLN Matters Number: SE20011 … Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) Response to the Public Health Emergency on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) was revised and posted November 9, 2020.  This is a 19-page MLN Matters. Pages 14 through 16 speak to clarification of SNF billing instructions as noted above.  You’ll…… Continue reading Recent COVID-19 Updates, Resources and Information

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS has just posted the COVID-19 data for nursing homes for week ending November 1, 2020.

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The most recent COVID-19 county positivity rates are posted here – November 10, 2020. There are many more red zones on this posting than previously.  For example, my home state of IA has 94 red zones and 5 yellow zones.  There are no green zones currently.…… Continue reading CMS COVID-19 County Positivity Rates for November 10, 2020 Posted