NHSN’s simplified LTCF Respiratory Pathogens & Vaccination Module is live. The prior six forms for reporting have decreased to two (2) forms with the new module. Individuals are now considered up to date for their COVID-19 vaccine if they have received a single dose of the 2024-2025 updated COVID-19 vaccine. If you missed the NHSN team’s prior education session, do not worry as additional sessions are scheduled. You may see the full listing of sessions, including registration links in our blog post on September 24th.
Up to Date Definition Changes for COVID-19
- Beginning September 30, 2024, individuals are considered up to date (question 2a) if they have received a dose of the 2024-2025 updated COVID-19 vaccine.
- Note: For questions about cases and up to date status (question 3a) as well as hospitalizations and up to date status (question 4a), residents would need to receive the vaccine 14 days or more before the positive test to be included.
- Under the new recommendations, most individuals will not be up to date with COVID-19 vaccines until they receive the 2024-2025 updated COVID-19 vaccine.
- Facilities should report zero (0) up to date until individuals receive the 2024-2025 updated COVID-19 vaccine.
New Combined Respiratory Pathogens Module/Form for Residents - Beginning September 30, 2024, facilities will report Respiratory Pathogen vaccination, case, and hospitalization data on a newly combined reporting module/form.
- COVID-19 vaccination, case, and hospitalization reporting are required while flu and RSV reporting remain optional.
- Facilities that choose not to collect and report Influenza and RSV vaccination, case, or hospitalization data should leave the fields blank on the combined form. Please do not enter zero (0) if you are not collecting and reporting these data.
- Users will continue to report cumulative vaccination coverage, meaning the number of individuals who ever received a certain vaccine.
- Users will continue to report new cases and hospitalizations that occurred during the week of data collection.
- Facilities will no longer be able to enter data for dates after September 30, 2024 into the COVID-19/Respiratory Pathogens Surveillance Pathways.
Weekly Reporting
Users should report data for the week corresponding to the reporting week on the calendar view. For example, to report data for the week of 9/30/2024 – 10/6/2024, select the reporting week labeled 9/30/2024 – 10/6/2024. This reporting would include all new cases and hospitalizations that occurred during the reporting week, and the vaccination status of all residents in the facility that week.
The old forms will still be available to report data for weeks before September 30, 2024. For example, facilities can report data for the week of 9/23/2024 -9/29/2024 using the old forms on 9/30/24. In other words, when you log into the application on 9/30/2024, you can select the reporting week of 9/23/2024 – 9/29/2024 and report data for that week using the previous (old) forms. The prior forms will not be available to use for reporting weeks after September 30, 2024.
Person-level Reporting
Facilities are still able to report COVID-19 vaccination data using the person-level form. Please attend our person-level webinars on October 2nd and 16th for detailed information on updates. Both dates will cover the same information. Registration details are below.
Register in advance for this webinar:
Questions
Please use NHSN-ServiceNow to submit questions to the NHSN Help Desk. The new portal can be accessed here and should be used in place of nhsn@cdc.gov, nhsntrain@cdc.gov, and nhsndua@cdc.gov. ServiceNow will help the NHSN team respond to your questions faster. Users will be authenticated using CDC’s Secure Access Management Services (SAMS), the same way you access NHSN. If you do not have a SAMS login, or are unable to access ServiceNow, you can still e-mail the NHSN Help Desk at nhsn@cdc.gov.