The National Health Safety Network (NHSN) Long-Term Care Facility (LTCF) Team shared important information regarding the recent modifications to the Long-term Care Facility Component. The information described below is valuable to assist with accurate reporting for the Respiratory Pathogens and Vaccination Module (which includes COVID-19, influenza and RSV). - Respiratory Pathogens and Vaccination (RPV) Module: Beginning on 9/30/2024, facilities report resident Respiratory Pathogen vaccination, case, and hospitalization data on a newly combined reporting form in the Respiratory Pathogens and Vaccination Module. Resident COVID-19 vaccination, case, and hospitalization reporting remain required under §483.80(g)(1)(viii) (F884). Influenza and RSV data reporting remain optional.
- Do not report 0's for the optional flu and RSV fields if you are not collecting these data, as this will lead to inaccuracies - leave the fields blank instead. Only report 0 if you are tracking the RSV or flu data and the true value is 0. For example, if you are not tracking RSV vaccination coverage, do NOT report 0 residents have received the RSV vaccine. Similarly, if you are not testing for RSV, do not report 0 new RSV positive tests. Instead, just leave these fields blank.
- Reporting Week Clarification: Users should report vaccination, case, and hospitalization data for the week corresponding to the reporting week on the weekly RPV calendar view. For example, to report data in the RPV summary form for the week of 9/30/2024 – 10/6/2024, select the reporting week labeled 9/30/2024 – 10/6/2024 on the calendar view. This reporting should include all new cases and hospitalizations that occurred from 9/30/24 – 10/6/24, and the vaccination status of all residents in the facility that week.
Data can be reported for the current or prior week in NHSN by Sunday of the current week. For example, facilities can report data for week-ending 10/6/24 or for week-ending 10/13/24 by 10/13/24. Any day of the week is fine to report, as long as you report once a week. For questions about CMS compliance, please contact DNH_Enforcement@cms.hhs.gov, not the NHSN Help Desk.
Also note, previously submitted data can be updated and re-saved. For example, suppose a facility reported 3 positive COVID-19 tests for the week of 9/30/2024 – 10/6/2024 on Wednesday (10/2), and then on Thursday and Friday, 2 more residents tested positive for COVID-19. In that case, users would change the 2 to 5 for the week of 9/30/2024-10/6/2024 because there was a total of 5 positive tests that week. To update data, select the correct reporting week from the calendar view, update the appropriate data, and select save.
- Analysis and Reporting – RPV Resident: To view data corresponding to the RPV Summary form, navigate to Analysis > Generate datasets > Generate reporting datasets. Once datasets have been generated, select Analysis from the home page and then select reports. On the Analysis Reports screen, click the Respiratory Pathogens and Vaccination folder, then click the RPV Summary sub-folder. Next, right-click on “Line Listing - Respiratory Pathogens and Vaccination - Resident” and click Run Report. To view Resident data for dates before 9/30/24, navigate to the reports in the Archived folder.
Please use NHSN-ServiceNow to submit questions to the NHSN Help Desk. The portal can be accessed here or through your CDC Secure Access Management Services (SAMS) account. After logging into SAMS, the NHSN-ServiceNow is located at the bottom at the bottom of the page.