a) A
facility shall have an infection prevention and control program for the
surveillance, investigation, prevention, and control of healthcare-associated
infections and other infectious diseases. The infection prevention and control
program shall also include an antibiotic stewardship program that includes
antibiotic use protocols and a system to monitor antibiotic use.
b) Written policies and procedures for
surveillance, investigation, prevention, and control of infectious agents and
healthcare-associated infections in the facility shall be established and
followed, including the appropriate use of personal protective equipment as
provided in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Guideline of
Isolation Precautions, Hospital Respiratory Protection Program Toolkit, and the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Respiratory Protection
Guidance. The policies and procedures shall be consistent with and include the
requirements of the Control of Communicable Diseases Code and Control of
Sexually Transmissible Infections Code.
1) All
staff shall be trained annually on the facility's infection control policies
and procedures, and training records shall be maintained for 3 years. For the
purposes of this Section, "staff" means any individual employed by the
facility, any individual contracted by the facility or employed by an entity
that is contracted by the facility to provide treatment and services, and any
volunteer providing services on behalf of the facility.
2) Students enrolled in accredited health
care training programs who are providing direct care during internships or
clinical rotations must have previously completed infection prevention and
control training as part of their curriculum prior to entering a facility for
the first time. The facility shall maintain a record of all interns and
students who have completed infection and prevention control training and
provide a copy of this record upon request by the Department.
3) Activities shall be monitored on an
ongoing basis by the infection preventionist to ensure adherence to all
infection prevention and control policies and procedures.
4) Infection prevention and control policies
and procedures shall be maintained in the facility and made available upon
request to facility staff, the resident and the resident's family or resident's
representative, the Department, the certified local health department, and the
public.
c) A group, e.g.,
an infection prevention and control committee, quality assurance committee, or
other facility entity, shall periodically, but no less than annually, review
the measures and outcomes of investigations and activities to prevent and
control infections, documented by written, signed, and dated minutes of the
meeting.
d) Each facility shall
adhere to the following guidelines and toolkits of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, United States Public Health Services, Department of
Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (see Section
390.340):
1) Guideline for Prevention of
Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections
2) Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health Care
Settings
3) Guidelines for the
Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections
4) Guideline for Prevention of Surgical Site
Infection
5) Guideline for
Preventing Healthcare-Associated Pneumonia
6) 2007 Guideline for Isolation Precautions:
Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare Settings
7) Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel:
Infrastructure and Routine Practices for Occupational Infection Prevention and
Control Services
8) The Core
Elements of Antibiotic Stewardship for Nursing Homes
9) The Core Elements of Antibiotic
Stewardship for Nursing Homes, Appendix A: Policy and Practice Actions to
Improve Antibiotic Use
10) Nursing
Home Antimicrobial Stewardship Guide
11) Toolkit 3. Minimum Criteria for Common
Infections Toolkit
12) TB Infection
Control in Health Care Settings
13)
Interim Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations to Prevent SARS-CoV-2
Spread in Nursing Homes
14)
Implementation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in Nursing Homes to
Prevent Spread of Novel or Targeted Multidrug-resistant Organisms
(MDROs)
15) Hospital Respiratory
Protection Program Toolkit: Resources for Respirator Program
Administrators
16) Respiratory
Protection Guidance for the Employers of Those Working in Nursing Homes,
Assisted Living, and Other Long-Term Care Facilities During the COVID-19
Pandemic
17) Guidelines for
Environmental Infection Control in Health-Care Facilities
e) Testing
The facility shall have a testing plan and response strategy
in place to address infectious disease outbreaks. Pursuant to the plan and
response strategy, the facility shall test residents and facility staff for
infectious diseases listed in Section
690.100 of the Control of
Communicable Diseases Code in a manner that is consistent with current
guidelines and standards of practice. Each facility shall conduct testing of
residents and staff for the control or detection of infectious diseases
when:
1) The facility is experiencing
an outbreak; or
2) Directed by the
Department or the certified local health department where the chance of
transmission is high, including, but not limited to, regional outbreaks,
epidemics, or pandemics. For the purposes of this Section, "outbreak" has the
same meaning as defined in the Control of Communicable Diseases Code.
3) Documentation
A) For residents, document in each resident's
record any time a test was completed, including the result of the test, or
whether testing was refused or contraindicated.
B) For staff members, document in each staff
member's confidential medical file (as distinct from their personnel file) any
time a test was completed, including the result of the test, or whether testing
was refused or contraindicated.
C)
For students, student interns, and volunteers, document in each individual's
confidential medical file any time a test was completed, including the result
of the test or whether testing was refused or contraindicated (in the event
that no confidential medical file is maintained, the program for students,
student interns, and volunteers shall include a process for documenting these
results).
4) Upon
confirmation that a resident, staff member, volunteer, student, or student
intern tests positive with an infectious disease, or displays symptoms
consistent with an infectious disease, each facility shall take immediate steps
to prevent the transmission by implementing practices that include but are not
limited to cohorting, isolation and quarantine, environmental cleaning and
disinfecting, hand hygiene, and use of appropriate personal protective
equipment.
5) Each facility shall
have written procedures for addressing residents, staff members, volunteers,
students, and student interns who refuse testing or are unable to be
tested.
f) Each facility
shall make arrangements with a testing laboratory to process any specimens
collected under subsection (e) and ensure that complete information is
submitted with each specimen, including name, address, date of birth, sex,
race, ethnicity, email address, telephone number, and attending physician (if
applicable).
g) For testing done
under subsection (e), each facility shall report to the Department, on a form
and manner as prescribed by the Department, the number of residents, staff
members, volunteers, students, and student interns tested, and the number of
positive, negative and indeterminate cases.
h) Certified facilities shall comply with
42 CFR
483.80(h).
i) Facilities shall not restrict visitation
without a reasonable clinical or safety cause and shall facilitate in-person
visitation whenever feasible, in accordance with Department and CDC guidance
for infection prevention.