Patient Safety Beat is a monthly email newsletter from the Betsy Lehman Center, a state agency working to improve health care safety across Massachusetts. Recent stories highlight timely issues such as vaccination efforts in long-term care, visitation policies during and after the pandemic, and peer support for patients and families.

The 72nd AHCA/NCAL Convention & Expo, taking place from October 10-13 at the National Harbor outside Washington, DC, offers education sessions in more than 16 tracks of learning​.

On June 30, 2021, a memorandum issued by EOEA Secretary Dr. Elizabeth Chen, provided an update on the free, online training course for providers to prevent and eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.

This week, Mass Senior Care members, Legacy Lifecare and Sherrill House, announced their organizations will require all employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Legacy Lifecare operates a network of not-for-profit organizations including Chelsea Jewish Lifecare of Chelsea and Peabody, JGS Lifecare of Longmeadow, Deutsches Altenheim of West Roxbury, and Elizabeth Seton Residence and Marillac Residence of Wellesley. And, Sherrill House is a not-for-profit skilled nursing facility and rehabilitation center in Boston.

This COVID-19 memo shares updates from DPH on increasing COVID-19 Vaccination, information about the VaxBus Tour Mobile Clinics; and registering for a July 8th Healthcare Cybersecurity Call.

MassHealth has created two grids as a resource for nursing facility providers in regard to MassHealth eligibility, and the Provider Relief Fund (PRF) Reporting Portal is now open for providers to report fund use for April 10, 2020 through June 30, 2020.

The Department of Public Health has indicated that an increasing number of nursing facilities are failing to both report weekly to CHIA on surveillance testing and failing to test 90% of unvaccinated staff, Mass Senior Care would like to remind nursing facilities that the use of face masks for source control is still required by the DPH, and register for July 13th OSHA Webinar.

The Joint Committee on Elder Affairs yesterday held a public hearing on 18 bills related to long term care facilities, many of which proposed higher minimum staffing requirements, care team planning requirements, new technology standard to foster communication between residents and their loved ones, new square footage requirements, and changes in suitability requirements for ownership changes, and a workforce survey.