Infection Prevention in Nursing Homes
Nursing homes must run an infection prevention and control program. Here is what the CDC and federal rules require and what families should watch for.
Updated
This guide is informational and is not medical advice.
Category: safety-and-health · Updated 2026
Germs spread quickly where people live in close quarters, and nursing home residents face extra risk from age, chronic conditions, and equipment shared between them. Certified facilities are required by 42 CFR §483.80 to maintain an infection prevention and control program along with an antibiotic stewardship program. The CDC publishes core practices that describe effective control, ranging from hand hygiene to environmental cleaning.
Below are the requirements, the everyday habits that matter, and the questions relatives can put to a facility to gauge how seriously it treats this work.
The federal requirement
A certified nursing home must, under 42 CFR §483.80, run a program built to stop infections from starting, spot them early, and keep them from spreading. Written standards, ongoing surveillance, and an antibiotic stewardship program are all mandatory, and the facility must name one or more trained infection preventionists. Surveyors inspect the program, and infection control failures can be cited as deficiencies. CMS also collects infection data and in recent years has mandated reporting of selected infections.
Everyday practices that matter
- Plentiful hand-hygiene stations and staff who wash consistently around resident contact
- Standard precautions and correct glove, gown, and mask use
- Disinfecting high-touch surfaces and equipment shared between residents
- Careful management of urinary catheters and other invasive devices
- Antibiotics guided by the stewardship program instead of prescribed on reflex
- Immunization drives for residents and employees alike
- Isolation and cohorting plans ready for an outbreak
- Tracking infection patterns and watching for trends in the building
The CDC's core practices for long-term care describe these as the foundation of a safe environment. See CDC long-term care infection prevention.
Devices, antibiotics, and drug-resistant germs
| Concern | What good practice looks like |
|---|---|
| Urinary catheters | Placed only when needed and taken out as soon as possible |
| Antibiotics | Given for a documented infection, with necessity and duration reviewed |
| Resistant organisms | Screening and precautions where indicated, plus clear communication |
| Outbreaks | Prompt isolation, notification, and coordination with public health |
Steering away from avoidable catheters and antibiotics sits at the heart of infection prevention. CMS quality measures and the antibiotic stewardship rule give facilities the tools to monitor both.
Ask the facility these
- Who serves as the infection preventionist, and what training do they have?
- What is your hand hygiene compliance rate, and how do you measure it?
- How do you monitor infections, and how would you detect an outbreak?
- What is your antibiotic use rate, and how does the stewardship program operate?
- How do you care for a resident with a resistant organism, and how do you inform families?
- What changes during respiratory illness season, including rules for visitors?
What visitors can do
Wash your hands when you enter and leave a unit, stay away while sick, keep your vaccinations up to date, and check before bringing in food or outside equipment. If you notice poor hand hygiene or dirty equipment, tell the charge nurse calmly and, if nothing changes, the administrator or ombudsman. Preventing infection is a shared job, and relatives often catch the small daily details that a survey cannot.
Sources: CDC long-term care infection prevention; CDC infection control; 42 CFR §483.80. Health content is informational only and not medical advice.
Related guides
- Stopping Falls Before They Happen in Nursing Homes
- Medication Safety for Older Adults in Care
- Reading a Nursing Home Inspection Report
- When Nursing Home Residents Return to the Hospital
- Nursing Home Resident Rights Under Federal Law
Frequently asked questions
Is an infection preventionist mandatory?
How should an outbreak be managed?
What is antibiotic stewardship?
Can a visitor bring an infection in?
Where do infection citations show up?
Data sources
CMS Provider Data Catalog · CMS Care Compare. This guide is provided for information and is not medical advice. Processing date: 2026-10-06.
Required disclosures
For general information only, not medical advice. This website shares public data and general information. It does not offer medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment guidance, and it cannot replace a consultation with a qualified health care professional or with Medicare.
Independent and unaffiliated. NursingFacilities.org is a private, independently run directory. It is not affiliated with, nor endorsed or operated by, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicare, or any government agency. CMS has not reviewed or endorsed this site.
Confirm details before acting. Facility records come from public federal datasets and may lag or contain errors. Always verify current ratings, services, availability, and coverage directly with the provider and on Medicare.gov.
Certain outbound links on this site are partner or affiliate links. If you use them we may receive a commission, and your price does not change. This never influences the data we publish.