The Department of Health has updated their Interim Guidance for Long-Term Care: Transferring between Long-Term Care and other Healthcare Settings. This update allows long-term care facilities to admit residents from the hospital while the facility has caregiving personnel with an identified COVID-19 infection. This updated guidance only applies if the following conditions are met:

• The facility has infection prevention policies in place and access to infection prevention expertise;
• The facility has adequate access to staff, personal protective equipment, and testing;
• The facility has a plan to cohort residents, including either a designated unit or area for residents diagnosed with COVID-19, or the ability to quickly create a designated unit or area for residents diagnosed with COVID-19; o Small facilities such as adult family homes may use private rooms for isolation of residents diagnosed with COVID-19; and
• The facility must notify the resident being admitted (or their guardian or other legal decision-maker) of the COVID status of the facility. This is a temporary allowance from January 21 to February 18, 2022, to ease the capacity challenges in hospitals. Facilities must also work with their local health jurisdiction if there is ongoing transmission in the facility and pause admissions pending approval by the local health jurisdiction.

Full letter here.

Questions?

Contact:

Laura Hofmann, MSN, RN – Director of Clinical and Nursing Facility Regulatory Services
c: 425-231-4804