Long-Term Care Survey Alert

Immediate jeopardy case provides a heads up for all facilities.

If your facility isn't cleaning its glucometers appropriately, beware. One facility recently got IJ for failing to clean a glucometer in between patients, even though staff had changed the lancet, reports attorney Paula Sanders, partner with Post & Schell in Harrisburg, Pa.

In fact, the revised CMS survey guidance for F441 (infection control) includes a specific IJ example involving that practice. The guidance notes that "not cleaning and disinfecting [the] glucometer between every use and re-using glucometer lancets" creates immediate jeopardy because it potentially exposes multiple residents to bloodborneinfections.

The bottom line: Facilities need to be familiar with the F441 guidance, stresses James Marx, RN, MS, CIC, an infection control expert in San Diego. "While there was no change in the regulation, the IG contains much more information that could be used to issue deficiencies during the survey."

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention also says you should disinfect and clean glucometers in between patients, says Sanders. "Glucometers should be assigned to individual patients," states the guidance. "If a glucometer that has been used for one patient must be reused for another patient, the device must be cleaned and disinfected"(www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/Resources/OrderPubs/HealthProf/PrevP-to-PTransHandout_Eng.pdf).

Cool tool: For an explanation of how to clean glucometers, go to www.unc.edu/depts/spice/glucometer.pdf.