Last week, Administrator Verma mentioned that they would be making public a list of nursing homes that have had staff complete the CMS “Targeted COVID-19 Training for Nursing Homes.” This is the free course available on QSEP that offers modules for both front-line staff and management staff (access training here). There is neither a requirement to complete this training nor a recommendation on the number of staff who should complete it.  However, CMS released today a list of nursing homes at which 50% or greater of staff had completed the training. This list is available here. We note that neither the list nor the CMS press release takes into account a concern that we have shared with CMS since before the training was released that not all staff or nursing homes have wide-spread access to computers in order to complete a web-based training. We also note that Administrator Verma has discussed a connection between nursing homes that have completed the training and the nursing home’s ability to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 infection. With this in mind, we recommend that nursing homes have as many staff complete this training as soon as possible. Understanding that wide-spread access to computers and web-based training is an issue, providers may wish to consider the following:

• Prioritizing training for certain staff at both management and front-line levels. Would this include your Director of Nursing Services and Infection Preventionist? What about other department heads? For front-line staff, consider CNAs. What about LPNs/RNs? What other staff have the most contact with residents and the resident environment? Social services and activities? Environmental services? Food and Nutrition Services?
• If you can’t get access for all to the web-based training, how can you (safely) share the information with all staff? Group in-servicing is probably NOT a good idea. How can you show that staff have been trained on the information contained if it’s not being logged on the QSEP platform?
• Be sure that any computer labs or shared portable electronic devices (like tablets) are cleaned and disinfected between uses!

Questions?

Contact: 

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