In a recent call with nursing home officials, the deputy secretary for Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration confirmed that the COVID-19 test kits sent to long-term care facilities were meant for employee and not resident testing.
“If you have residents that require testing, please make sure that you are coordinating with their healthcare provider, or you may contact the county health department if you require testing for residents,” the deputy secretary told nursing-home officials.
Emergency rules require that nursing homes and assisted living facilities test staff members every other week, and test kits are mailed to those facilities every month.
Although the federal government recently announced that 2,000 rapid COVID-19 test kits would be sent to nursing homes where virus hotspots are occurring, it is not clear how many of those test kits would be sent to Florida facilities.
As of July 16th, Florida reported there were 3,652 long-term care residents who had tested positive for the Novel Coronavirus, as well as 6,368 staff members.
“We have over 700 nursing homes in Florida, so we’ll continue to work closely with CMS (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) to understand their plan and their approach and will proceed as requested with any additional information to help inform them,” said Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary on a call about the availability of rapid testing.
Compliance Perspective
Restricting COVID-19 test kits provided monthly to long-term facilities to “staff only” use requires nursing homes and assisted living facilities to find other sources for the COVID-19 test kits needed for their residents in order to be in compliance with COVID-19 guidelines.
Discussion Points:
- Review policies and procedures to ensure that the facility is complying with the CMS and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines. (View the following links to CDC publications: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/nursing-homes-testing.html and https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/long-term-care.html)
- Train staff members regarding the importance of keeping residents who have not tested positive for COVID-19 separate from residents who have tested positive. Also train staff to keep residents whose status is undetermined and awaiting results of a test separate from both non-infected and infected residents.
- Periodically audit to ensure the facility has access to the number of COVID-19 tests needed to comply with testing guidelines for both residents and staff members. Ensure that staff are consistently assigned and not crossing over to provide care for infected and non-infected residents.
