Halting a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in a US Veterans Affairs nursing home
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Monique Thorne; Aikaterini Papamanoli; Florence M. Ford; Lisa Bailey; George Psevdos; Zeena Lobo; Nancy R. Barrett
- Source
- American Journal of Infection Control
- Subject
- Male
Epidemiology
Health Personnel
Unit (housing)
law.invention
Disease Outbreaks
Patient Isolation
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
COVID-19 Testing
law
Quarantine
Medicine
Infection control
Humans
Mass Screening
030212 general & internal medicine
Veterans Affairs
Asymptomatic Infections
Personal Protective Equipment
Mass screening
Veterans
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
0303 health sciences
Infection Control
030306 microbiology
business.industry
Infection Control Practitioners
SARS-CoV-2
Brief Report
Health Policy
fungi
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Outbreak
COVID-19
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
United States
Nursing Homes
Long-term care
United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Nursing Home
Infectious Diseases
Carrier State
Female
Medical emergency
business
- Language
- ISSN
- 1527-3296
Highlights • SARS-CoV-2 infection can spread rapidly among residents and staff of a nursing home facility • Implementing effective infection control practices can be challenging especially when facing shortage of PPE • Creating a geographic “COVID” unit, implementing universal screening tests of residents and staff, and strictly enforcing infection control measures had all been important to contain a COVID-19 outbreak in a Veterans nursing home.
A Veterans Affairs long term care facility on Long Island New York was confronted with a COVID-19 outbreak in late March to Mid-April 2020. Faced with a dwindling supply of PPE, the Infection Control team distributed supplies saved for a possible Ebola outbreak; A COVID unit was created within the nursing home facilitating the geographic isolation of cases; universal testing of residents and employees allowed for the implementation of proper quarantine measures. It was a multidisciplinary team approach led by the Infection Control team that successfully contained this outbreak.