LTCF COVID-19 Module

CDC’s NHSN provides healthcare facilities, such as long-term care facilities (LTCFs), with a customized system to track infections and prevention process measures in a systematic way. Tracking this information allows facilities to identify problems, improve care, and determine progress toward national healthcare-associated infection goals.

The NHSN Long-term Care Facility Component is supporting the nation’s COVID-19 response through the COVID-19 Module for LTCFs. Facilities eligible to report into the COVID-19 Module include nursing homes/skilled nursing, long-term care for the developmentally disabled, and assisted living facilities.

The COVID-19 Module for LTCFs consists of four pathways within NHSN’s Long-term Care Facility Component:

• Resident Impact and Facility Capacity
• Staff and Personnel Impact
• Supplies and Personal Protective Equipment
• Ventilator Capacity and Supplies

Data submitted into the Module pathways enables an assessment of the impact of COVID-19 through facility reported information, including: 1) counts of residents and facility personnel with newly suspected and laboratory positive COVID-19; 2) death counts among residents and facility personnel with suspected and laboratory positive COVID-19; 3) staffing shortages; 4) availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and supplies; and 5) ventilator capacity and supplies for facilities with ventilator dependent units.

In addition to the reporting pathways, the Point-of-Care (POC) Test Reporting Tool has been added to enable LTCFs to enter POC SARS-CoV-2 test results into the NHSN application.  NHSN will route the POC laboratory test data to the public health agency at the local or state level that has jurisdictional authority and responsibility to receive those data.  Health agencies, in turn, will use the data to fulfill their public health functions, which include reporting to the US Department of Health and Human Services, where the data will be used in the COVID-19 response. Participation in this pathway requires users to have secure access through Secure Access Management Services (SAMS), which includes having a SAMS grid card.

LTCFs that wish to report POC SARS-CoV-2 testing results into the NHSN application, but have limited access to the COVID-19 Module only (specifically, no SAMS grid card), should click Increasing LTCF SAMS Level Access to NHSN or contact NHSN@cdc.gov for assistance. LTCFs enrolling in NHSN for the first time should follow the 5-Step Enrollment for Long-term Care Facilities instructions. Enrolled facilities should not re-enroll.

LTCF data submission options include manual entry and/or CSV file submitted by individual facilities or bulk CSV file upload for multiple facilities. Note: CSV file submission is not currently available for the Point-of-Care (POC) Test Reporting Tool.

Please review the below sections for access to important information, updates, upcoming and archived training resources, and more.