On this page: Background | Hot Topics | Educational Resources | Data & Reporting | Regulatory Resources | Collaborations

Background
Long-term care facilities may help with medical and non-medical care to support a person's health or personal needs. The care can be for a short or long term. Long-term care settings include:
- Assisted Living Facilities
- Inpatient Hospice
- Nursing Homes/Skilled Nursing Facilities
- Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities
- Rehabilitation Centers
Special considerations for infection prevention in these settings
- More people in the U.S. are living in long-term care facilities, with complex medical needs and use more medical devices, as well as antibiotics. Residents often move in and out, so sharing medical history is key. This includes antibiotic use, devices, past infections, and risk factors.
- CDC Interfacility Transfer Form - The patient transfer form helps make it easier to share information when patients are moved between different places for care. Hospitals and groups focused on making patient safety better can change and use this form to fit their needs.
VDH Infection Prevention and Control Assessments
Our team is available to conduct no cost, consultative, non-regulatory, and non-punitive onsite assessments for infection prevention and control (IPC) programs in Virginia.
Benefits of Collaborating with VDH for IPC Assessments:
- The VDH Team can help strengthen your facility’s IPC program and activities
- IPC Program improvements make your facility safer for patients and staff
- VDH experts can answer your questions and provide education and training at no cost
What to Expect at your IPC Assessment:
- Before the in-person assessment, VDH will ask you some demographic questions to understand your facility better
- During the visit, VDH staff will tour your facility to learn and observe IPC practices
- After the visit, VDH staff will:
- Provide a written summary of facility strengths and recommendations for IPC improvement
- Offer follow-up discussion
- Supply resources and education tailored to your needs
Hot Topics
Nursing Home Infection Prevention Quick Guides: New series of resources is for infection preventionists in nursing homes.
Educational Resources
General resources for long-term care
- CDC Long-Term Care Settings website
- HQIN Resources
Assisted Living Facilities and Nursing Homes
- Statewide Program in Infection Control and Epidemiology (SPICE) – skilled nursing and assisted living courses and resources
- CDC Nursing Home Infection Preventionist Training Course
- Virginia Department of Social Services – resources for licensed assisted living facilities and adult day care centers
- Infection Prevention and Control Training Plan - includes a foundational infection prevention and control curriculum intended for all staff. Additional optional courses are available for enrichment for all staff and additional optional courses for supervisors and leaders in infection prevention and control.
- Infection Prevention and Control Train-the-Trainer Resource Binder
- FAQs: Communicating Medical Information During Resident Transfer
- Guidance: Sick Staff (for Administrators)
- Guidance: Sick Staff (for Providers and Staff)
Return to the Resources Hub to view all healthcare settings.
Infections and organism webpages with resources specific to long-term care settings:
- Bloodborne Pathogens
- Candida auris
- Carbapenem-Resistant Organisms (CRO)
- Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) / UTI
- Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI)
- Clostridioides difficile
- COVID-19
- Group A Streptococcus
- Staphylococcus Aureus
- Scabies & Bed Bugs
Return to the Resources Hub to view all infections and organisms.
Healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance (HAI/AR) topic webpages with resources specific to long-term care settings:
Return to the Resources Hub to view all HAI/AR topics.
Data & Reporting
- CMS Care Compare – public information about the quality of care at CMS-certified nursing homes including rehab services or Medicare-certified hospices; use to find nursing homes or hospices and compare facilities
- COVID-19 Nursing Home Data (CMS) – Resident and staff COVID-19 vaccination data are available by nursing home and state
National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)
- CMS-certified long-term care facilities are required to report various respiratory case and/or vaccination data through the NHSN Long-Term Care Facility Component’s Respiratory Pathogens and Vaccination Module and the NHSN Healthcare Personnel Safety Component. There are protocols for facility residents (COVID-19, influenza, RSV) and healthcare personnel (COVID-19 and influenza).
- LTCFs also have the option to report COVID-19 test results provided by a POC test device through the NHSN Point-of-Care (POC) Test Reporting Tool. Important: the reporting of POC test result data in this tool does not take the place of answering test-related questions in the Respiratory Pathogens and Vaccination Module.
- Skilled nursing homes certified by CMS may report the POC test results to either the VDH COVID-19 Point of Care Test Reporting Portal or to NHSN. Facilities only need to report to one system, as results from NHSN are reported to appropriate state and local health departments using standard electronic laboratory messages.
- NHSN Long-Term Care Facilities Component (CDC) – resources for nursing homes, skilled nursing, chronic care, and intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disability to track infections and prevention process measures
VDH Surveillance Resources
- FAQs: Surveillance
- FAQs: How to Collect Specimens
- Guidance: Outbreak Identification
- Log: GI Illness (Staff)
- Log: GI Illness (Resident)
- Log: Respiratory Illness (Staff)
- Log: Respiratory Illness (Resident)
- Log: Resident Illness (general)
- Log: Monthly Infection Surveillance Tracking
Virginia Communicable Disease & Outbreak Reporting Requirements
General Reportable Disease Requirements
- Virginia Reportable Disease List
- Outlines diseases and conditions (including outbreaks) that are reportable to the local health department by physicians, directors of medical care facilities (such as nursing homes), and directors of laboratories.
- Assisted living facilities are required to call the health department whenever they suspect an outbreak may be occurring but are not required to report individual cases of the reportable diseases/conditions. If an ALF resident has a reportable disease/condition, his/her physician is responsible for reporting to the local health department.
- Part of the Regulations for Disease Reporting and Control
- Confidential Morbidity Report Form (Paper version)
- Suspected Outbreak Reporting Portal
- HAI/AR COVID-19 webpage – see Virginia Communicable Disease & Outbreak Reporting Requirements
Regulatory Resources
- CMS State Operations Manual, Appendix PP - Guidance to Surveyors for Long-Term Care Facilities, Released Aug 2024 (Infection Control Guidance on pgs 770-804)
- Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS)
- Virginia Department of Health
- Virginia Department of Social Services (DSS) – Assisted Living Facilities page
- Virginia Regulatory Town Hall – source of information about proposed changes to Virginia’s regulations; includes online forums where the public can make comments on proposed regulations