Providers have more information on how surveyors will interpret infection control and vaccination requirements moving forward thanks to updated guidance to the long-term care survey process procedure guide released last week by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The infection control survey will include a review of providers’ infection prevention and control program, policy and procedures for staff COVID-19 vaccination, antibiotic stewardship program, and the influenza, pneumococcal, and COVID-19 vaccinations for residents and staff.
It will also include details around whether to enforce the infection control section [483.80(i)] of the Requirements of Participation. If enforced, the facility will have 4 hours to complete the COVID-19 staff vaccination matrix, the American Health Care Association noted in a blog post on Thursday. The surveyor will then select eight staff to review for COVID-19 vaccinations once the matrix is received.
The updated guidance also notes that the new F888 tag (staff COVID-19 vaccination) will be cited according to this attachment included with CMS guidance for the healthcare staff vaccination mandate.
The clarity for surveyors comes amid ongoing scrutiny of infection control practices.
In the latest cycle, F-880 tags given for lapses in providing and implementing an infection prevention and control program continued to be the most common. Meanwhile, tags for F-882, designation of a qualified infection preventionist, rose by more than 60% over the previous cycle.
Those findings were according to an initial analysis by StarPRO consulting of new CMS survey data dropped last week.
A full list of the guidance updated through last week can be found here.
