Attn: Federally Certified Non-Long Term Care Providers
For purposes of this memo and survey tool:
- “Facility” means inpatient, congregate settings, such as ambulatory surgery centers, hospitals, inpatient hospices, intermediate care facilities for individuals with developmental disabilities, dialysis facilities, and clinics.
- “Home” refers to settings such as hospice and home health where care is provided in the home.
Effective December 30, 2020, CMS issued CMS Memo QSO-21-08 NLTC revising the COVID-19 Focused Infection Control (FIC) Survey Tool for Acute and Continuing Care. CMS revised the non-long term care (NLTC) FIC survey tool to reflect COVID-19 guidance updates, provide clarifications to existing information, and update the appropriate CMS regulatory tag considerations if a citation is warranted. The FIC survey tool was also aligned with recent updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) related to screening and triage of those entering healthcare facilities.
CMS Memo QSO-21-08 NLTC includes the revised COVID-19 Focused Infection Control Survey Tool: Acute and Continuing Care, and shows the updates made since the last release. For purposes of the survey tool, “staff” includes employees, consultants, contractors, volunteers, and others who provide care and services to patients on behalf of the facility.
Not all providers/suppliers have specific infection control regulatory requirements that will tie directly to every question on the FIC survey tool; however, most providers/suppliers have basic requirements that are closely related to IC issues, such as providing safe care and/or maintaining sanitary environments and equipment. As with the normal survey process for assessing compliance with the Medicare conditions, all identified deficiencies must be supported by the statute or regulations and reported using the principles of documentation. The FIC survey tool can also be used by facilities for COVID-19 infection control education and self-assessment purposes.
Questions may be submitted to: QSOG_EmergencyPrep@cms.hhs.gov
