CMS Releases Nursing Home COVID-19 Training Data

​The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has recognized 1,092 nursing homes where 50% or more of their staff have completed CMS training. This training is designed to help staff combat the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes. There are 125,506 individuals from 7,313 nursing homes who have completed the training, representing approximately 12.5% of the roughly one million nursing home staff in the United States. A list of nursing facilities where 50% or more staff have completed the training is available on the CMS website.

 

The training includes multiple modules, with emphases on topics such as infection control, screening and surveillance, personal protective equipment usage, disinfection of the nursing home, cohorting and caring for individuals with dementia during a pandemic. CMS developed this training in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and expert stakeholders, and announced the training on August 25, 2020. The training is available on the CMS Quality, Safety & Education Portal.

If a nursing home’s staff is unsure which training module best meets their needs, CMS is offering an online self-assessment tool at www.qioprogram.org to help them identify their needs and suggest the appropriate training modules that best reflect those needs. A certificate of completion is offered for each completed training course.