STATE NEWS

Unrelated to COVID, But Time Sensitive
Fire Marshal Supervisor Randy DeShon will speak about power strips in healthcare this Wednesday, February 16th at 1 PM. Join Zoom Meeting. Meeting ID: 931 5542 4830. Passcode: 0qYEU2.

FEDERAL NEWS

HRSA to Hold Feb 17th Technical Assistance Session on Reporting on Nursing Home Infection Control Provider Relief
After participating in the LeadingAge hosted webinar on Feb. 2nd on this topic, HRSA decided to host its own technical assistance session on the topic of reporting on Nursing Home Infection Control Provider Relief Funds on Thursday, Feb. 17th at 2 PM CT. Nursing homes can register for the webinar here. We anticipate that much of the content will be similar to what was shared on Feb. 2nd, but some information may be new. It is not clear if there will be a Q &A portion of the program.

PBJ Reporting for Nursing Home Impacted by the Kronos Ransomware Attack
CMS sent communication through the iQies system last week to confirm that nursing homes impacted by the Kronos ransomware attack will not be penalized for missing staffing data. Impacted organizations should contact CMS at nhstaffing@cms.hhs.gov by March 1st with the following information:

• Name and address of nursing home
• Name and phone number of contact person at nursing home
• CMS Certification Number (CCN)
• Kronos Solution ID

Nursing homes should still submit any available data by the February 14th deadline. Any recovered data after February 14th can be submitted up to March 31st. While CMS will not downgrade star ratings for the April 2022 refresh for missing data, data will be used to calculate the turnover measures in the future.

LEADINGAGE KANSAS NEWS

Join Us For Our Friday Webinars
Did you miss last Friday’s Webinar? Here is the recording and here are the handouts. If you haven’t registered for future calls, you can do so here.

LEADINGAGE NATIONAL NEWS

LeadingAge Update Calls This Week (2:30 PM CT Monday and Wednesday)

• Monday, February 14th, LeadingAge member and clinical advisory group member, Dr. Noah Marco, Medical Director of the Los Angeles Jewish Home, will talk about his community’s efforts to keep COVID-19 out, dealing with surges, the impact of isolation on residents, and his organization’s successful efforts to increase staff and resident booster rates. 
• Wednesday, February 16th, we will welcome Johns Hopkins University professor Melissa deCardi Hladek to talk about her recent research on how we are coping with COVID-19 and what we can do to help manage stress during these trying times. 

If you haven’t registered for LeadingAge Update Calls, you can do so here.

RESOURCES

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) — Safety Monitoring of COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Doses Among Adults — United States, September 22, 2021–February 6, 2022
To characterize the safety of COVID-19 vaccine boosters among persons aged ≥18 years during September 22, 2021–February 6, 2022, CDC reviewed adverse events and health impact assessments following receipt of a booster that were reported to v-safe, a voluntary smartphone-based safety surveillance system for adverse events after COVID-19 vaccination, and adverse events reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a passive vaccine safety surveillance system managed by CDC and FDA. You can learn more here: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) — Waning 2-Dose and 3-Dose Effectiveness of mRNA Vaccines Against COVID-19–Associated Emergency Department and Urgent Care Encounters and Hospitalizations Among Adults During Periods of Delta and Omicron Variant Predominance
VISION Network, 10 States, August 2021–January 2022. Waning of vaccine protection after 2 doses of mRNA vaccine has been observed during the period of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant predominance, but little is known about durability of protection after 3 doses during periods of Delta or SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 (Omicron) variant predominance. A test-negative case-control study design using data from eight VISION Network sites examined vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-19 emergency department/urgent care (ED/UC) visits and hospitalizations among U.S. adults aged ≥18 years at various time points after receipt of a second or third vaccine dose during two periods: Delta variant predominance and Omicron variant predominance (i.e., periods when each variant accounted for ≥50% of sequenced isolates). You can learn more here:Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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