The CDC has made several updates on guidance for facemasks for health care personnel (HCP). AHCA/NCAL encourages providers to review the latest updates. As surveys begin to resume, surveyors may look to CDC guidance and evaluate if providers are adhering to the latest guidance. 

The updates include:  

• Additional considerations for returning to conventional capacity practices.
• Conventional capacity strategies: Clarified HCP use of facemasks for source control and as PPE to protect their nose and mouth from exposure to splashes, sprays, and respiratory secretions. 
• Contingency capacity strategies: 
  • Added clarifications on extended use of facemasks as PPE. 
  • Added clarifications on restriction on facemask use by HCP as PPE rather than by patients for source control. 
• Crisis capacity strategies: 
  • Revised section on limited re-use paired with extended use. 
  • Deleted the strategies of designating convalescent HCP for the provision of care of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, use of expedient patient isolation rooms, and mechanical headboards. 

Please visit Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of Facemasks to learn more.