Hospitals, Nursing Homes Get Direction on Handling Virus

(Bloomberg Law) -- The Medicare agency is limiting inspections of nursing homes and hospitals during the coronavirus outbreak and has issued guidance to those facilities on how to handle possible or confirmed cases.

This comes as deaths in the U.S. total 11 and at least 129 people have contracted the virus.

Inspections of nursing homes and hospitals will continue, but will be focused on allegations of abuse and neglect, allegations of a facility putting its patients at risk for harm, and infection control, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said. Infection control inspections will occur when there are complaints about a lack of disease management and for facilities that have a history of deficiencies with infection.

“Today's actions, taken together, represent a call to action across the health care system,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement. “All health care providers must immediately review their procedures to ensure compliance with CMS' infection control requirements, as well as the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

The CMS also officially announced it will be sending an infection prevention specialist to the CDC to assist in developing recommendations for medical providers. Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan had informed the House Budget Committee of the move earlier in the day.

The agency also issued guidance to hospitals and nursing homes, which have been asking the CMS to provide more information.

Recommendations for Nursing Homes

Nursing homes are being told to keep their residents who are suspected or confirmed to have the coronavirus rather than transfer them to a hospital, the nursing home guidance said. The exception is when the patient requires more care or the facilities can't follow CDC infection control practices. Nursing homes can accept patients diagnosed with the coronavirus if they can follow CDC precautionary guidelines for transmission.

Members of Congress have been asking the Trump administration for more information on how to deal with the coronavirus in nursing homes. Deaths in Washington state have been centered around a nursing home near Seattle in Kirkland, where there are a large number of suspected patients.

Not all patients require hospitalization and many can be managed at home, the hospital guidance said. In the case of procedures that create a higher risk of transmission, like inserting a tube into a patient's airway to help them breathe, health-care workers should wear protective equipment like masks and gowns, only essential personnel should be in the room, and the room should be disinfected.

Hospitals should take into consideration a patient's ability to comply with self-isolation recommendations and the possible risk of transmission to other household members when deciding if they should discharge someone with coronavirus, the guidance said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shira Stein in Washington at sstein@bloomberglaw.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fawn Johnson at fjohnson@bloomberglaw.com; Brent Bierman at bbierman@bloomberglaw.com

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