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NHSN reporting

The number of Iowa facilities that did not report to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) for the period ending June 28 increased by 8.6% from the previous week. While this may have been an anomaly attributed to the July 4 holiday, IHCA advises members to be sure to complete this reporting process

As a reminder, here are basic rules for submitting the required COVID-19 data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and CMS:

  1. Nursing facilities must submit the data through the NHSN at least once every seven days. Facilities may choose to submit multiple times a week. 
  2. CMS is not prescribing which day of the week the data must be submitted, although reporting should remain consistent with data being submitted on the same day(s) each week. 
  3. The collection period should also remain consistent (e.g., Monday through Sunday). 
  4. Each Monday, CMS will review the data submitted to assess if each facility submitted data at least once in the previous seven days. The data pulled each Monday will also be used to update the data that is publicly reported.

The CDC and NHSN updated the following instruction documents on two pathways in June.  

In addition, it is recommended that providers check the new NHSN Dashboard to review if facility data entry was successfully uploaded.  

Other new or recently updated instructions on the CDC NHSN webpage include the following:  

Providers are urged to review these updated documents. Facilities that have yet to make a successful report to the NHSN due to technical difficulties should contact DIA Bureau Chief Mindla White at 515-281-3765 for assistance.

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