CMS Issues Guidance on Long-Term Care Compliance

The guidance aims to support the implementation of the Long-Term Care (LTC) Facilities Requirements for Participation that were published in 2016.

By Dan Hounsell


CMS issued surveyor guidance for infection control and other critical areas that clarifies specific regulatory requirements and provides information on the way it will assess compliance. The guidance aims to support the implementation of the Long-Term Care (LTC) Facilities Requirements for Participation that were published in 2016. CMS also is revising its guidance to state agencies to strengthen the management of complaints and facility-reported incidents. 

The updates to guidance are one piece of CMS’s ongoing effort to implement President Biden’s vision to protect seniors by improving the safety and quality of our nation’s nursing homes, as outlined in a fact sheet released in March 2022. 

  • The surveyor guidance addresses several key points on infection control: 
  • It requires facilities to have a part-time infection preventionist (IP). 
  • While the requirement is to have at least a part-time IP, the IP must meet the needs of the facility. 
  • The IP must physically work onsite and cannot be an off-site consultant or work at a separate location. 
  • The IP role is critical to mitigating infectious diseases through an effective infection prevention and control program. 
  • An IP specialized training is required and available. 

Phase 3 requirements such as trauma-informed care, compliance and ethics, and quality assurance performance improvement, as well as the clarifications of quality of life and quality of care, food and nutrition services, and physical environment are also included in this guidance. 

CMS will provide training in the Quality, Safety, and Education Portal (QSEP) for surveyors and nursing home stakeholders to explain the updates and changes of the regulations and interpretive guidance. Training on the updated software will be forthcoming in QSEP in early September 2022. 



July 12, 2022


Topic Area: Infection Control


Recent Posts

Infection Control is Key to Ongoing Measles Outbreak

Infection control is essential to protecting both patients and staff from contracting measles.


Kaiser Permanente to Open New Parker Medical Offices

It also announced it's in the early stages of planning a rebuild and expansion of its Westminster Medical Offices.


Skanska Completes Renovation for New Sutter Health Care Center

The new facility will provide internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, as well as lab and imaging services.


Probiotic Cleaners: The Start of a Cleaning Revolution?

Advantages of probiotic cleaning include fewer resistant genes and cost savings through decreased antibiotic use.


Gun Incident Highlights Need for Security Infrastructure

A man was arrested at Aultman Memorial Hospital after allegedly firing a gun in the ER.


 
 


FREE Newsletter Signup Form

News & Updates | Webcast Alerts
Building Technologies | & More!

 
 
 


All fields are required. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

 
 
 
 

Healthcare Facilities Today membership includes free email newsletters from our facility-industry brands.

Facebook   Twitter   LinkedIn   Posts

Copyright © 2023 TradePress. All rights reserved.