The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued updated guidance documents focused on infection control to prevent the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus in inpatient and outpatient care settings.
The guidance is designed to empower local hospitals and healthcare systems, helping them to rapidly expand their capacity to isolate and treat patients infected with covid-19 from those who are not. Based on guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the guidance will help ensure infection control in the context of patient triage, screening and treatment, the use of alternative testing and treatment sites and telehealth, drive-through screenings, limiting visitations, cleaning and disinfection, staffing, and more.

The guidance includes new instructions for dialysis facilities as they work to protect patients with end-stage renal disease, who are among those most vulnerable to complications arising from covid-19 because of their immunocompromised state and frequent trips to healthcare settings.

The new infection control guidance also affects such alternative healthcare settings as critical access hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, community mental health centers, and outpatient physical therapy or speech pathology clinics.

Read more from CMS.