- GAO Issues Report on Improving Infection Prevention And Control Practices In Nursing Facilities
In Nursing Homes: Experts Identified Actions Aimed at Improving Infection Prevention and Control, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sets out actions that the Department of Health and Human Services could “continue, enhance, or discontinue to improve infection prevention and control practices in nursing homes.” The March 2023 report is based on recommendations of 13 experts (in a panel convened by the GAO in 2022) as well as recommendations of two prior national reports (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’s Coronavirus Commission on Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes and the National Academies’ Committee on the Quality of Care in Nursing Homes), and prior GAO reports.
Two recommendations for enhancement are supported by all prior studies: developing staffing solutions (that is, improving staffing levels and requirements for infection preventionists) and strengthening mandatory infection prevention and control training. The single action that GAO recommends be discontinued is “extended use of limitations on visitation and group activities.”
March 23, 2023 – T. Edelman
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