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Handwashing & High Touch Awareness

by | Dec 2, 2021 | Body, Consumer, Facility, Mind, Provider

The Importance of Proper Hand-Washing and Sanitation

Over the course of the last year, many aspects of our daily lives have taken on more significant importance. One of these areas is proper hand-washing and sanitation. This is something that many people didn’t often think about, merely just going through the steps. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made us re-examine these small parts of our daily lives.

Washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds is one of the first lines of defense against Coronavirus and other infections.

Is Washing Your Hands Really That Important?

For the skeptics out there who just can’t seem to sort through the conflicting claims made by the media, this is a very valid question. The answer is very simple if you shuffle aside all the “opinions” and focus on the real scientific facts provided by real medical experts. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — an organization filled with renowned health experts — proper hand washing is one of the most important steps you can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs and diseases to those around you.

Sources:

https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/index.html

https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html

https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/show-me-the-science-handwashing.html

 

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TeamSTEPPS® is:

  • an evidence-based framework aimed at optimizing patient and/​or resident care by improving communication and teamwork skills in healthcare settings;
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  • part of the ongoing patient safety movement which includes those receiving care across healthcare settings, including those living in nursing homes; and
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Training Focused for Long Term Care (LTC):

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Antibiotics – Train the Trainer series:

Exploring antibiotics and their role in bacterial infections

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Clostridium difficile Part One: Clinical Overview  (part one – clinical overview)

Clostridium difficile (Part Two: Strategies to Prevent, Track, and Monitor C. difficile)

Training Focused for Facilities:

 COVID-19 StAT Learning Series for Hospitals

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), with input from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other stakeholders, has developed the COVID-19 StAT Learning Series for Hospitals. StAT stands for Standards, Approaches and Tactics for COVID-19 Infection Control & Prevention. This online, mobile-friendly, self-paced training is intended for hospital infection control leaders, frontline hospital staff and hospital administrators.

With the COVID-19 StAT Learning Series for Hospitals, you will find the latest tools and techniques, along with refreshed best practices for a new era of infection prevention and control.

Each self-paced learning module is approximately 15 minutes long. Take the COVID-19 StAT Self-Assessment to determine which trainings are right for you.

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Review Your QPP Registration and Data

Be ready! If you are already registered have the security Official/Staff person log-in. If you aren’t sure who has access, create a system for your office so the following information is handy; gather the following:

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  • Medicare PECOS PAC ID (numbers of members in the group)
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It’s handy to have the Provider Enumeration Date and the last Update. As a member, you have access to an EXCEL workbook, ASK Us!

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Facilities and LTC

See how your facility will compare with other nursing homes!

Long Term Care – The Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing Program (SNF VBP)

Just as LTC learned where and how to access information and tools, CMS retired the site in Dec. 2020.  The new site, walks the user through the steps in retrieving data sets for specific data collection periods.

It’s handy to have tools! Visit our Education and Tools section or let us know how we can help!

As a Long-Term Care Facility (LTC) or Nursing Home 

  • CMS mandates are aligned to performance indicators related to the Healthcare Reform Act. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP), and health insurance portability standards.
  • Are you a Nursing Home or a facility that has beds for Rehab patients? Purposeful Concepts LLC offers the right level of leadership to guide your team with "role-based" strategies to best understand desired performance outcomes and pinpoint the change in a workflow that can make the difference. With LTC facilities now facing CMS mandates from both a federal and state standards align with components of care which are listed on a “LTC-Rule Job Aid” with measures or “F-tag” focus areas. CMS F-tags are used by each state department of Health and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to survey quality of care provided to residents in facilities.  We have a custom tool available that correlates to the current available F-tags that focus on the survey process.  Join us, we offer different levels of service to best fit the needs of your facility.
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