'4C' Intervention to Reduce SARS-CoV-2 Transmission: Coaching, Cleaning, Communication and Collaboration

Nursing homes have long faced special challenges in implementing effective infection prevention programs, including limited resources and diagnostic challenges in a frail functionally disabled long-stay population. Advancing our understanding of the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within these facilities for vulnerable populations deserves urgent and further investigation. Environmental contamination with SARS-CoV-2 that is reported in limited studies highlights the potential importance of transmission between patients, their environment, and healthcare providers via direct and indirect contact.

This study seeks to characterize the epidemiology of SARS-CoV- 2 in the NH patient room environment over time and the risk of transmission to near and far environments, with the explicit intent of developing integrated, simple COVID-19 infection prevention strategies that can be reported to and implemented throughout other nursing homes and long-term care facilities.