Long term facilities are supposed to feel more like home than a hospital. They absolutely need the infection control like a hospital though. This is where ICAP and ASAP came into the picture (see UNMC Today article about their great work). The vision of the state health department was very clear as they decided to partner with the UNMC/Nebraska Medicine experts for making infection control expertise/guidance available to all healthcare facilities in the state.
Dr. Ashraf along with other ICAP team members has developed several COVID-19 related resources that have had a significant impact to the Long Term Care Centers patient care and support team processes. Facilities are also receiving the most recent updates through an email distribution list. During the increasing incidence of COVID-19, Dr. Ashraf and his hard-working team, put together the following for the facilities in their work to keep their residents and staff safe:
- Beginning in March, weekly webinars focused on COVID-19 prevention and containment are being held.
- Office hours started with a live person staffing a phone for 2 hours in the morning and evening for facilities to call directly with any infection control questions.
- In the event a COVID-19 case occurred in the facility, they will be paired with an experienced infection disease specialist who is associated with ICAP.
- Steps and checklists relating to specific guidance on COVID-19 containment after identification of case were made available on the website (link)
- The team worked closely with the CDC for making remote Infection Control Assessment and Response (Tele-ICAR) assessment available to facilities that have not seen a COVID-19 case but are working on improving their infection control program to keep COVID-19 out of their buildings.
- A Nebraska facility that observes a COVID-19 case is referred by ICAP to the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC) team for an on-site visit to help in containment efforts.
Dr. Ashraf and his team will continue to make a difference beginning in Nebraska and hopefully establishing National Guidance for this group of patients. Dr. Ashraf credits Dr. Mark Rupp and Shelly Schwedhelm, MSN, RN, NEA-BC as well for their leadership in seeing the value of such a group and their continuous support and guidance to the team throughout the last 5 years.