COVID-19 Project ECHO for Nursing Homes: A Patient-centered, Randomized-controlled Trial to Implement Infection Control, United States, 2021

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Nationally, nursing homes have been devastated with 2,726,897 COVID-19 cases and 162,874 COVID-19 deaths as of November 28, 2022. Nursing homes were ill-equipped for the pandemic; though facilities are required to have infection control staff, only 3% have taken a basic infection control course. Significant research has focused on infection control in the acute care setting; however, little is known about the implementation of practices and effective interventions in nursing homes. The researchers proposed an intervention utilizing Project ECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes), an evidence-based tele-mentoring model, to connect Penn State University experts with remote nursing home staff and administrators to proactively support evidence-based infection control guideline implementation. This study sought to answer the critical research question of how evidence-based infection control guidelines can be implemented effectively in nursing homes.