Texas OASIS: Dementia Care Training Expanding to Community Settings
The Money Follows the Person program has received grant funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand the Texas OASIS: Dementia Care Training to the community setting. The training will be available to assisted living facilities, home and community services agencies and day activity centers free of charge.
During each two-day conference, participants will receive in-depth information on dementia care, the Texas OASIS training manual, a flash drive with the training materials and the DVD “Bathing Without a Battle”. After completing Texas OASIS: Dementia Care Training, participants will be able to teach the curriculum to their own staff.
Dates and locations for the training will be available in the Fall of 2017, with conferences beginning in the Winter of 2017-2018.
Please send any questions related to this training to QMP@hhsc.state.tx.us.
Save the Date – Texas Culture Change Coalition Fall Conference
2017 Culture Change Conference
Oct. 5, 2017
Austin, TX
Mark your calendars for the 2017 Culture Change Conference, hosted by the Texas Culture Change Coalition and the Texas Health and Human Services system.
The activity has been submitted to the Texas Nurses Association for approval to award contact hours. Texas Nurses Association – Approver is accredited as an approver of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
Texas Medicaid/CHIP is an approved provider of continuing education credit for licensed social workers, licensed professional counselors and licensed marriage and family counselors. HHSC is offering an estimated 6.7 CEs/clock hours to assisted living facility managers, certified nurse aides, ombudsmen, licensed nursing facility administrators, nursing facility activity directors and licensed psychology professionals.
Registering for the conference will be available soon. For more information, visit www.txccc.net.
New Long-term Care Provider Search Website – Update your bookmarks
The long-term care Quality Reporting System website was retired June 30. The retired QRS website redirects users to the new and improved Long-term Care Provider Search website; a link to the new website is provided on the QRS page.
Update your bookmarks to access the new LTC Provider Search Website.
Email questions about the Long-term Care Provider Search Website to ltcsearch@hhsc.state.tx.us
Texas Department of State Health Services Designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a Regional Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network Laboratory
The DSHS Laboratory in Austin has been designated as the regional antibiotic resistance laboratory network laboratory for eight mountain states, including Texas. As part of this initiative, DSHS was funded to accept isolates, confirm and characterize the mechanisms of resistance for the following antibiotic resistant organisms:
- Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae
- Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter baumanii
- Carbapenem-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa
If your facility is in Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Hardin, Harris, Jefferson, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Orange, Walker, Waller or Wharton counties, all isolates and laboratory reports should be sent to City of Houston Public Health Laboratory. Email Juanita Sumpter at Juanita.Sumpter@houstontx.gov to ask for information on shipping the sample and the appropriate submission form.
Facilities in the remaining counties should send all isolates and a laboratory report to the DSHS State Laboratory in Austin. To request information on submission forms and isolate shipping instructions, please contact DSHS State Laboratory in Austin at TexasARLN@dshs.texas.gov. Please include your DSHS Laboratory Submitter ID number (if known), organism/isolate type and contact information.
The CDC will gather testing data on a national scale to help monitor and develop pathogen-specific interventions for emerging threats, support outbreak response and provide stronger infection control and prevention measures against these infections. Additionally, facility contact personnel will be able to access their facility specific, real-time actionable data. Please feel free to view the latest updates on the CDC’s ARLN and other initiatives for combatting antibiotic resistance: http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/solutions-initiative/ar-lab-networks.html.
If you have any questions or comments, e-mail TexasARLN@dshs.texas.gov.
All notifiable conditions should still be reported to your local health department. Visit http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/idcu/investigation/conditions/contacts/ to locate the contact information for your local health department.
Effectiveness of Various Cleaning and Disinfection Products on Clostridium difficile Spores
A recent article from the journal Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control described the testing of a variety of cleaning and disinfection agents to determine their effectiveness against Clostridium difficile spores, particularly those of specific PCR ribotypes (010, 014 and 027).
C diff is a common healthcare acquired infection, spread through the transmission of bacterial spores. C diff spores can survive in the environment for long periods of time, so cleaning and disinfection is crucial. Those most at risk for developing C diff are people who have been taking antibiotics and receiving medical care (including older adults). More than 80 percent of C diff related deaths occur in people 65 or older.
For this article, researchers tested four different products (either wipes or sprays) for effectiveness against the C diff spores. In general, cleaning/disinfection wipes performed better than the ready to use sprays. Wipes impregnated with hydrogen peroxide 1.5% solution had the highest bactericidal activity.
To read the full article, visit http://aricjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13756-017-0210-3.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s current guidelines and recommendations for preventing C diff can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/hai/organisms/cdiff/cdiff_infect.html
Update Your Contacts - Our Email Address Has Changed
The Quality Monitoring Program has a new email address: QMP@hhsc.state.tx.us. Please add the new email address to your contacts.
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