Association Between CMS Quality Ratings and COVID-19 Outbreaks in Nursing Homes - West Virginia, March 17-June 11, 2020.

Association Between CMS Quality Ratings and COVID-19 Outbreaks in Nursing Homes - West Virginia, March 17-June 11, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020 Sep 18;69(37):1300-1304 Authors: Bui DP, See I, Hesse EM, Varela K, Harvey RR, August EM, Winquist A, Mullins S, McBee S, Thomasson E, Atkins A Abstract Nursing homes are high-risk settings for outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (1,2). During the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health departments worked to improve infection prevention and control (IPC) practices in nursing homes to prevent outbreaks and limit the spread of COVID-19 in affected facilities; however, limited resources have hampered health departments' ability to rapidly provide IPC support to all nursing homes within their jurisdictions. Since 2008, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published health inspection results and quality ratings based on their Five-Star Quality Rating System for all CMS-certified nursing homes (3); these ratings might be associated with facility-level risk factors for COVID-19 outbreaks. On April 17, 2020, West Virginia became the first state to mandate and conduct COVID-19 testing for all nursing home residents and staff members to identify and reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in these settings (4). West Virginia's census of nursing home outbreaks was used to examine associations between CMS star ratings and COVID-19 outbreaks. ...
Source: MMWR Morb Mortal Wkl... - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Tags: MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Source Type: research