Providers can now include information about any point-of-care testing when submitting their weekly COVID-19 data to the federal government.
The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living on Tuesday detailed the updates to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Resident Impact and Facility Capacity pathway. Nursing home providers since May have been required to disclose COVID-19-related infections directly to the CDC’s NHSN system.
The updates include the addition of four new questions regarding providers’ use of point-of-care testing:
- Does the LTCF have an in-house point-of-care test machine (capability to perform COVID-19 testing within your facility)?
- Since the last date of data entry in the Module, how many COVID-19 point-of-care tests has the LTCF performed on residents?
- Since the last date of data entry in the Module, how many COVID-19 point-of-care tests has the LTCF performed on staff and/or facility personnel?
- Based on this week’s inventory, do you have enough supplies to test all staff and/or facility personnel for COVID-19 using the point-of-care test machine?
The organization also noted that the CDC added a clarification in the “Confirmed Notes” section to address differences in testing devices and clarity of positive coronavirus test results. Information on how to recognize and report reinfections to align with patients who have persistent or recurring positive test results was also added.
