Western Pennsylvania Healthcare Partners Announce Scholarship Program for Long-Term Care Infection Prevention Specialists

The partners, which make up the Regional Congregate Care Assistance Team (RCAT), include Allegheny Health Network, Excela Health, UPMC, Penn Highlands Healthcare and the Healthcare Council of Western Pennsylvania.

PITTSBURGH – Infection prevention in long-term care facilities (LTCF) has never been more important or vital than during the COVID-19 global pandemic. In this unprecedented year, LTCF across the world have been on the front lines battling this deadly virus.

To help support their efforts to care for this vulnerable population, the Regional Congregate Care Assistance Teams (RCATs) have launched a scholarship program to support RNs, LPNs, medication technicians (Med Tech), and other clinicians in long term care facilities in Western Pennsylvania to become certified infection preventionists.   

“It has been a pleasure to witness the extraordinary bravery and unwavering commitment among countless long-term care clinicians over the past year. We are extremely pleased to offer this scholarship program which aims to enhance the infection prevention expertise of our long-term caregivers,” said Emily Jaffe, MD, MBA, vice president and executive medical director, Helion, and post-acute medical director, AHN.

The Wolf Administration established the RCATs in early January 2021 to continue some of the support previously offered by the Regional Response Health Collaborative (RRHC) program when its funding lapsed at the end of 2020. The Western Pennsylvania RCAT partners include Allegheny Health Network, Excela Health, UPMC, Penn Highlands Healthcare and the Healthcare Council of Western Pennsylvania.

The scholarship program will provide financial aid for healthcare workers to attend the Infection Preventionist Certificate Mastery Program (IPAC) which is a prerequisite course to be eligible to sit for the NADONA Infection Preventionist Board Certification. Completing the IPAC course and the official IPAC board certification exam enables successful participants to further their careers.

Those who advance to infection control positions will be leading long-term care facilities in their compliance with the most current infection control practices. This improves the safety and quality of care provided to residents.

For information on receiving a scholarship, please contact Jane Montgomery, Chief Operating Officer, Healthcare Council of Western PA, at 724-772-7264 or email jane.montgomery@hcwp.org no later than April 30, 2021.

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