Higher COVID-19 Testing Rates for Nursing Home Staff Are Associated with Fewer Resident Infections and Deaths

Skilled nursing facility (SNF) residents are at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 hospitalization and death. Governments and professional organizations have issued recommendations for surveillance testing of facility staff members, but adoption has varied greatly. Investigators used U.S. national SNF and Medicare databases to assess whether resident infections and COVID-19 death rates from November 2020 to May 2022 differed in SNFs with high and low rates of staff surveillance testing (about 1.7 vs. 0.6 tests/staff-week, respectively). Outcomes were calculated per 100 outbreak periods, adjusted for countywide rates of surveillance testing and infection and facilities' staff and resident vaccination rates.

The infection rate was…