DOH Reduces Frequency of COVID-19 HERDS Survey for Nursing Homes and ACFs

(April 1, 2025) LeadingAge New York is pleased to report that Department of Health (DOH) announced today that they will transition the daily COVID-19 HERDS survey for nursing homes and adult care facilities (ACFs) to a weekly data collection effort in this Dear Administrator letter (DAL). LeadingAge NY and our membership have been pushing for the elimination of the survey for some time. We are pleased to see this step in the right direction. 

Effective April 2, 2025, the Department no longer requires daily reporting for nursing homes and ACFs. The HERDS will remain daily until April 1st, and then will shift to submitting every Tuesday, with the first weekly submission being scheduled for April 8th. 

The Department will hold a 30-minute webinar on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. to review the change in reporting frequency for ACFs and nursing homes and outline changes to the survey that streamlines data collection. 

 To register for the webinar, please click on the following link: https://meetny-gov.webex.com/weblink/register/r1d11aec429e79cc24c859fd455029705 

The HERDS survey for home care providers is already on a weekly schedule, every Tuesday and will continue at that cadence. DOH is reviewing the questions for that survey and plans to updating the survey in the upcoming months. 

Contact: Diane Darbyshire, ddarbyshire@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8828