The state of Michigan's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs announced that they have completed federally required nursing home inspections 2 1/2 months early, ensuring they will not lose up to 15% of the federal funding for coronavirus being offered under the CARES Act.
Under the CARES Act, states are required to complete focused infection control surveys in federally certified nursing homes by August 31 or lose part of their coronavirus funding. State officials say they completed the survey of all 442 federally certified nursing homes between March 26 and June 19.
“Our BCHS health care surveyors have consistently been on the frontlines, with a focus on mitigating the spread of this virus; they’ve conducted in-person inspections and investigations of our long term care providers from the onset of the declared COVID-19 emergency,” said LARA Director Orlene Hawks in a news release. “Throughout the pandemic, LARA has made it a priority to continue our work protecting the health and safety of the public and, in particular, our nursing home residents. Reaching the 100% mark two months early is due to the hard work of our dedicated team of surveyors. As we continue to learn more about COVD-19, we know that there is more work still to be done.”
New requirements have also been put into place that requires the state to perform on-site surveys withing 30 days if nursing homes fall into any of the following categories:
- confirmed cases of 10% or more of their bed capacity
- confirmed plus suspected cases of 20% or more of their bed capacity
- ten or more COVID-19-related deaths
Those on-site surveys are also required within 3 to 5 days in using homes that either identify three or more new COVID-19 suspected and confirmed cases in a week or identify its first resident case of COVID-19.
Additional Coronavirus information and resources:
Click here for a page with resources including a COVID-19 overview from the CDC, details on cases in Michigan, a timeline of Governor Gretchen Whitmer's orders since the outbreak, coronavirus' impact on Southeast Michigan, and links to more information from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC and the WHO.
View a global coronavirus tracker with data from Johns Hopkins University.
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