LTCF COVID-19 Module

CDC’s NHSN provides healthcare facilities, such as long term care facilities (LTCF) with a customized system to track infections and prevention process measures in a systematic way.

Tracking this information allows facilities to identify problems, improve care, and determine progress toward facility and national healthcare-associated infection goals.

The NHSN Long-term Care Facility Component is supporting the nation’s COVID-19 response by introducing a new COVID-19 Module for Long Term Care Facilities. Facilities eligible to report into the COVID-19 Module include nursing homes/skilled nursing, long-term care for the developmentally disabled, and assisted living facilities.

The COVID-19 Module for LTCFs consists of four pathways within NHSN’s Long-term Care Facility Component:

• Resident Impact and Facility Capacity
• Staff and Personnel Impact
• Supplies and Personal Protective Equipment
• Ventilator Capacity and Supplies

The Module enables an assessment of the impact of COVID-19 in LTCFs through facility reported information, including: 1) counts of residents and facility personnel with suspected and laboratory positive COVID-19; 2) counts of suspected and laboratory positive COVID-19 related deaths among residents and facility personnel; 3) staffing shortages; 3) status of personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies; and 4) ventilator capacity and supplies for facilities with ventilator dependent units.  The Module does not collect staff or resident-level information.

Participation in the COVID-19 Module for LTCFs requires facilities to be actively enrolled in NHSN. LTCFs that are currently enrolled in NHSN’s LTCF Component have immediate access to the new module and may begin reporting. If your facility previously enrolled, but is no longer able to gain access, contact NHSN user support at nhsn@cdc.gov for assistance. Please do not re-enroll a previously enrolled facility.

LTCFs that are not enrolled in NHSN may gain access to the COVID-19 Module by completing the enrollment process outlined in the Enrollment section of this page. Upon completion, the facility will gain same-day access to NHSN.

While daily reporting will provide the timeliest data for response purposes, retrospective reporting of prior day(s) is encouraged if daily reporting is not feasible. LTCF data submission options include manual entry, CSV file submitted by individual facilities or bulk CSV file upload for multiple facilities.  NHSN, in turn, will enable state and local health departments and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to gain immediate access to the COVID-19 data for LTCFs in their jurisdictions. COVID-19 data submitted to NHSN also will be used by CDC’s emergency COVID-19 response and by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) COVID-19 tracking system maintained in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response.

NHSN LTCF staff will conduct various virtual trainings and office hour sessions to assist LTCFs with enrollment and data submission. Please see the training schedule for upcoming trainings.