COVID-19 and Infection Prevention

Watch this Oct. 3, 2024, Nursing Home Connect webinar recording in which specialists explain how COVID-19 vaccines were developed and provide current 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccination recommendations. Learn about emerging variants, why it is still important to stay up to date and the current implications for nursing homes.

Watch this Sept. 19, 2024, Nursing Home Connect webinar recording to learn about the latest vaccination updates for the fall season. This webinar discusses the importance of the new 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine and highlights popular resources in our immunization's toolkit.

Listen to this April 25, 2024, Nursing Home Connect webinar recording from the TMF Quality Innovation Network where specialists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instruct on the latest guidance for COVID-19 vaccination policy, treatment options and more.

Listen to this April 18, 2024, Nursing Home Connect webinar recording from the TMF Quality Innovation Network to find out how facilities have overcome challenges implementing quality improvement systems. Learn from peers who have achieved success with resident and staff COVID-19 vaccination rates and learn how to successfully report data in the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) presented a national webinar featuring the TMF QIN-QIO's work with Birchwood of Beeville, Texas, nursing home on Jan. 31, 2024. Hear directly from nursing home teams that developed successful strategies to overcome COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and fatigue, schedule onsite vaccination clinics and address staff turnover.

In this recorded webinar on Feb. 1, 2024, TMF Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) introduces a new COVID-19 Outbreak Response Plan to provide resources and guidance for investigation, contact tracing, containment and cohorting, and educational signage. Learn how to ensure a proper communication chain is executed if an outbreak occurs.

During this Nursing Home Connect webinar recording from Jan. 25, 2024, Susan Wehry, MD, director of AgingME, discusses the physical and mental challenges faced by health care staff since the COVID-19 pandemic. As a nationally recognized geriatric psychiatrist, Dr. Wehry provides lessons and strategies on overcoming those lasting effects.

Older Americans who are not vaccinated are at greater risk of serious illness. Read this press release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advising vaccines to protect older adults against all three fall/winter respiratory illnesses: flu, COVID-19 and RSV.

In this Oct. 24, 2023, recording, TMF QIN-QIO specialists discuss how nursing home staff can cope with their physical and emotional conditions despite COVID-19 fatigue.

The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) created this toolkit to help long-term care providers encourage and facilitate vaccinations among their residents and staff.

In this Oct. 10, 2023, recording, TMF QIN-QIO specialists walk through a seamless transition of care, including effective communication of COVID-19 vaccination status.

In this Sept. 26, 2023, recording, TMF QIN-QIO specialists discuss the latest variant classifications, how variants occur, how they are tracked and how COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines are evolving to adapt to new variants.

In this Sept. 12, 2023, recording, TMF Quality Innovation Network–Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) specialists discuss the importance of the updated COVID-19 vaccine, routine vaccinations for older adults this season and our new immunization resources toolkit.

Nursing facilities can use these flu, pneumonia, COVID-19 and RSV immunization resources for staff, residents and family.

In this Aug. 22, 2023, recording, learn how cultural disparities, generational factors and gender can affect COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. TMF QIN-QIO specialists discuss ways to leverage this information to develop new understandings and design processes to overcome vaccine hesitancy.

In this Nov. 15, 2022, recording, TMF QIN-QIO specialists discuss infection control procedures, including COVID-19 vaccinations, as a way to prevent sepsis.

A new CDC report shows that in a large cohort of nursing home residents, receipt of a second mRNA COVID-19 booster dose during circulation of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants was 74% effective at 60 days against severe COVID-19–related outcomes (including hospitalization or death), and 90% against death alone compared with receipt of a single booster dose.

This July 21 LTC Connect recording features TMF QIN-QIO subject-matter experts reviewing hand hygiene protocols and proper procedures for donning and doffing personal protective equipment. They also discuss targeted COVID-19 training from CMS for management and frontline staff, including vaccination system preparation.

Valuable peer-to-peer learning is shared during TMF Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization’s (QIN-QIO) weekly Nursing Home Office Hours. This article shines a spotlight on some of the best ideas revealed during the first half of 2022 to overcome daily challenges with COVID-19 and vaccinations in nursing facilities.

Health care professionals from all care settings are encouraged to use the resources listed in this change package to help care for patients at risk of contracting COVID-19.

This series of three learning modules focuses on identifying the signs and symptoms of COVID-19, knowing when and how to report signs and symptoms of COVID-19, and remembering to maintain infection prevention processes.

This June 16, 2022, LTC Connect recording features TMF QIN-QIO subject-matter experts reviewing recent updates to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) reporting system, including changes to the data that facilities are asked to report in the COVID-19 Pathway and Vaccination modules.

This brief document details the COVID-19 Reporting data fields with the associated CMS reporting deadlines and frequency.

Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities can use this checklist to assess and improve their preparedness for responding to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

This May 19, 2022, LTC Connect recording features Amie Taggart Blaszczyk, PharmD, BCGP, BCPS, FASCP, professor and division head of Geriatrics & Pediatrics with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, discussing her research on medication issues seen in the wake of a COVID-19 diagnosis. Her findings show the dangers of polypharmacy and interactions beyond the acute illness, and can inform us about what to watch out for when any acute illness occurs in residents.

You may be confused about whether your symptoms are truly allergy related, flu or symptoms of an infection like COVID-19. This flyer helps distinguish the differences.

This Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality - AHRQ - document provides guidance on what fit testing is, how to do it and what the person being tested can expect.

This communication tool offers fuel-based interventions intended to increase vaccine uptake and friction-based interventions that respond to hidden barriers that hold people back from vaccination.

This webinar provides updates to the CDC’s COVID-19 quarantine and isolation guidelines in health care and non-health care settings.

This handout from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality outlines a pathway for health care facilities to improve infection control and prevention practices and help stop the spread of COVID-19.

View this video featuring nationally recognized women's health physician Gloria Richard-Davis, MD, MBA, NCMP, FACOG, with the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences (UAMS), who addresses common fertility concerns with COVID-19 vaccines and why it is important to receive the vaccine.

In this video, a nursing home CNA shares her perspectives on the COVID-19 vaccinations.

Watch this video presentation, hosted by the Health Resources and Services Administration, to learn how to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. This recording features Catherine Lindsey Satterwhite, PhD, MSPH, MPH, regional health administrator for the U.S. Department and Health Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health in Region VII; Marwan Haddad MD, MPH, AAHIVS; and Kasey Harding MPH. You must use the following passcode to access the video: n1c=*y70.

View this video featuring Monika Maxwell, RN, who shares her perspective, as a Hispanic woman in health care, on why minority communities may be hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Listen to this Sept. 17, 2020, recording presented by TMF Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization webinar. Dr. Buffy Lloyd-Krejci with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières shares findings from visits to nursing homes in Houston/Harris County. Click here to view the slide presentation for this webinar. https://tmfnetworks.org/Portals/0/Resource%20Center/091720%20Office%20Hrs%20PPT_COVID-19_Final_508.pdf

John Hopkins University offers a new, free e-learning course to help people understand the COVID-19 pandemic. The course is set up as a series of short modules to explore the pandemic and specifics about the virus, including discussion of the virus that causes COVID-19 and the pandemic’s broader implications for society.

This flyer in Spanish for Puerto Rico promotes getting all vaccines to help protect from severe symptoms so you can enjoy more time with important people in your life.

This U.S. Spanish flyer promotes getting all vaccines to help protect from severe symptoms so you can enjoy more time with important people in your life.

Tal vez se pregunte si sus síntomas son los de una alergia o los de una infección como el COVID-19.

Esta infografía muestra los datos actuales sobre el COVID-19 de los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC).