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A reminder that all skilled nursing facilities in Wisconsin are required to use the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) for CRE reporting as of June 1, 2017. All facilities should be enrolling now if they have not already done so. Facilities already on NHSN need to confer rights to the Division of Public Health to complete the requirement (please do not enroll a second time). Monthly data entry of the facility's denominator (resident days and admissions) must be done even if a facility does not have an eligible CRE isolate.
In response to questions received regarding the consequences of failing to report CRE via NHSN, the Division of Quality Assurance (DQA) notes the federal nursing home regulation (Federal tag F441) for Infection Control requires the facility infection prevention and control program to have written standards, policies, and procedures which identify when and to whom possible incidents of communicable disease or infections should be reported. The F441 Guidance to Surveyors notes “It is important for each facility to have processes that enable them to consistently comply with State and local health department requirements for reporting communicable diseases.”
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