February Updates:

FEMA Releases New Exercise Starter Kits
February 13, 2024
Exercises help the whole community to prepare for disasters and emergencies by providing opportunities to shape planning, assess and validates capabilities, and address areas for improvement.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Exercise Division (NED) has developed ten new Exercise Starter Kits to support exercise practitioners and emergency managers at all levels of government, the private sector and nonprofit organizations as they plan, conduct, and evaluate their exercises.

The ten new kits cover the following topics:

• Climate resilience.
• Climate adaptation.
• Complex incident coordination.
• Large-scale population movement and resettlement.
• Mitigating social isolation and loneliness.
• Community preparedness and response to the opioid crisis.
• Enhancing supply chain resilience.
• Recovery.
• Community profile.
• Reunification.

The new kits align with FEMA’s 2023-2026 National Exercise Program Principals’ Exercise Priorities. Each kit contains a sample exercise facilitator and evaluator guide, sample conduct slides, a sample situation manual and a customizable placemat. All Exercise Starter Kits are available in the Emergency Management Toolkit section of FEMA’s Preparedness Toolkit.

FEMA will host a series of webinars to discuss the new kits. All webinars will offer the same content. Registration is not required to attend. Visit FEMA’s Adobe Connect Room for the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) during one of the times listed below to participate:

• Session 1: Thursday, Jan. 25, at 5 p.m. EST.
• Session 2: Wednesday, Jan. 31, at noon EST.
• Session 3: Tuesday, Feb. 13, at 9 a.m. EST.

If you are unable to attend one of the webinars listed above, a recorded version of the webinar will be available on the Preparedness Toolkit HSEEP Webinars page starting Feb. 1.
If you have any questions, please email [email protected].


​Long-Term Care Infection Preventionist Essentials
Virtual Option: February 27-29, 2024
In Person: April 24-26, 2024
In partnership with the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), MDHHS Surveillance for Healthcare-Associated & Resistant Pathogens (SHARP) Unit is offering complimentary Long-Term Care Infection Preventionist (LTC IP) Essentials Trainings. Training attendees will also receive a free one-year APIC membership; existing members will receive a one-year extension.
This training provides the foundation of the infection preventionist (IP) role and the practice of being an effective IP in a long-term care setting, including creating and managing successful IPC programs and mitigating risk at your facility. This training also covers CMS-required topics. 
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A virtual and an in-person session will be offered.
Dates

• Virtual | February 27-29, 2024
• In-person (Livonia, MI) | April 24-26, 2024

In response to the substantial demand for the LTC IP Essentials courses, an application process has been implemented for the 2024 course offerings.

To express your interest and initiate an application for attending the LTC IP Essentials February session, click on the link below for application instructions. 
Learn more and to apply


​HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Issues Guidance to the Nation's Hospital and Long-Term Care Facility Administrators Clarifying Their Obligations to Ensure Religious Non-Discrimination in Patient Visitation
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance to U.S. hospital and long-term care facility administrators, reminding organizations of their independent obligations under Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations to ensure that facility visitation policies, including during a public health emergency, do not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of religion; as well as their obligation not to discriminate on other protected bases under federal civil rights laws, against patients or other individuals receiving care.

To help health care facilities understand their obligations, OCR is providing guidance titled FAQs on Patient Visitation at Certain Federally Funded Entities and Facilities. This guidance provides examples demonstrating the importance of considering the religious needs of patients and other individuals when implementing visitation policies and procedures.
Read the full press release