Atlanta, Georgia — Nursing homes now have two new free resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designed to tackle two of the most persistent challenges in long-term care: deadly infections and staff burnout.
The CDC recently released the Sepsis Prevention Assessment Tool for Nursing Homes, known as SPAT, alongside the Targeted Assessment for Burnout, or TAB. Both tools are available at no cost and come with implementation guides, making them accessible to facilities of all sizes.
A Targeted Approach to Sepsis
Sepsis remains a leading cause of death among nursing home residents. The agency’s new SPAT questionnaire walks facilities through five domains: leadership commitment and accountability, prevention education and feedback, screening and identification, care coordination, and infection prevention. The goal is to help operators pinpoint exactly where their facility may fall short before a resident deteriorates.
“Compared to adults of similar age in the community, nursing home residents are more likely to get infections that may lead to sepsis if not recognized early and promptly managed,” CDC officials noted in materials accompanying the tool. “Everyone in healthcare plays an important role in preventing sepsis.”
Along with the core assessment, the agency packaged several supplemental resources including a deployment packet, a gap prioritization worksheet, and an in-depth review that takes a closer look at facility practices around sepsis recognition.
Burnout Gets Its Own Tool
The second resource, TAB, is designed to measure burnout risk among frontline staff — nurses, physicians, and certified nursing assistants alike. The anonymous 29-question survey covers two key domains and can be deployed either by individual facilities or through public health partners.
Staff burnout has been widely linked to turnover, which continues to plague skilled nursing facilities across the country. Having a structured, anonymous way to gauge where staff are emotionally and professionally could give administrators an early warning before they’re watching good people walk out the door.
The tool doesn’t just identify a problem — it comes with a distribution guide to help management actually act on what they find.
Why It Matters Now
Both tools arrive at a moment when nursing homes are dealing with staffing shortages, regulatory pressure, and tight margins. That they’re free and structured for practical use — rather than academic study — sets them apart from a lot of what comes out of federal agencies.
Facilities can access SPAT and TAB directly through the CDC’s website. The rollout represents one of the more concrete, operationally useful things to come out of Washington’s public health apparatus for long-term care in recent memory — and it didn’t cost facilities a dime to get it.
