As we complete Week 4 of the 16-week Project ECHO sessions, the focus of this week’s curriculum pivoted to address participants concerns and questions about the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine in the Commonwealth’s nursing facilities. During the sessions, nursing facility participants, geriatricians, and long term care clinicians reviewed the latest news regarding the vaccine and discussed how to safely and effectively implement it in nursing facilities. Since the vaccine is on a fast track for distribution and nursing facilities in Massachusetts are prioritized in Phase 1, next week’s Project ECHO session will continue the discussion on vaccine management with a substantial amount of time being devoted to Q&A.
Mass Senior Care and Hebrew SeniorLife are leading 300 nursing facilities from across the Commonwealth have been participating in this nationwide training program to help keep COVID-19 from spreading in nursing homes and to prepare and equip staff so that they can better protect residents and themselves.
The program is part of the National Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network supported by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in collaboration with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Project ECHO. Massachusetts Senior Care Association and Hebrew SeniorLife are participating in the Network as an official “Hub,” responsible for training nursing homes across Massachusetts in infection control.