Nursing Home Quarantine Requirements in Michigan
- A patient can be quarantined if he is suffering from a contagious disease.operation nurse image by Andrey Rakhmatullin from Fotolia.com
Nursing homes in Michigan are allowed to quarantine patients who are suspected of suffering from contagious diseases such as cholera, swine flu, tuberculosis and smallpox to prevent the diseases from spreading. These rules are guided by the guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control. Quarantine in Michigan is also covered under the Guidelines for the Control of a Suspected or Confirmed Outbreak of Viral Gastroenteritis in a Nursing Home issued by Michigan state government. - According to the guidelines issued by Michigan state government, when there is an outbreak of a contagious disease, all residents of a nursing home should be confined to their own rooms where they will receive individual services. This includes being served with food separately. The nursing home must ensure that collective activities such as parties are not held as this is an opportunity for sick patients to infect the others. This isolation must be maintained until three days after the disease outbreak ends.
- To ensure that the purpose of quarantine is achieved, which is to reduce chances of infection spread, there should be a controlled visitation program. Michigan's guidelines state that the nursing home should ensure that all visitors are in good health so that they do not bring infectious diseases to the nursing home. During their visit, they should go straight to their patient and not mingle with all the residents during their visit. Hygiene issues search as having the visitors disinfect their hands when coming into contact with patients should also be observed.
- Caregivers in Michigan nursing homes should ensure that they exercise care so as not to get infected with the contagious disease or to cause the spread of the diseases among patients. In particular, a caregiver should not serve both the sick patients and those who are not sick. Those who are sick should receive care by specific caregivers, while those who are not sick should be served by another group of caregivers. The Guidelines for the Control of a Suspected or Confirmed Outbreak of Viral Gastroenteritis in a Nursing Home indicate that the caregivers should exercise care by ensuring that they maintain a high level of cleanliness and wear gloves while serving the patients.
- To contain infections, Michigan requires the staff of the nursing home to take measures to disinfect the entire nursing home facility. Carpets that can store dust should be cleaned with hot water mixed with detergent. While doing this cleanup the staff wears masks and gloves to avoid infection.
