Healthcare-Associated Infections Update from Health and Human Services

In 2009, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), released a plan called the "National Action Plan to Prevent Health Care-Associated Infections: Road Map to Elimination" (HAI Action Plan). The action plan addressed acute care, ambulatory surgery centers, end-stage renal disease facilities and long-term care. In 2013, the HAI Action Plan went through a substantial update, and included a section for increasing influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel.

This week, the ODPHP announced "ambitious new targets for the national acute-care hospital metrics" for the HAI Action Plan. It used 2015 data as a baseline to replace targets that expired in 2013. The goal for these measures is to primarily track HAIs at a national level.

The measures include the following goals:

• Reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in intensive care units and ward-located patients
• Reduce catheter-associated urinary tracts infections (CAUTI) in intensive care units and ward-located patients
• Reduce the incidence of invasive healthcare-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections
• Reduce facility-onset MRSA in facility-wide healthcare
• Reduce facility-onset Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections in facility-wide healthcare
• Reduce the rate of C. diff  hospitalizations
• Reduce surgical-site infection (SSI) admission and readmission
• Adherence to process measures to prevent SSIs

There are a few other important developments associated with this update:

• ODPHP eliminated the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) process measure due to major compliance and widely accepted practice.
• Antibiotic stewardship is gaining major momentum, with HHS developing an "Agency Priority Goal" for combating antibiotic resistant bacteria. 

Infection Control Consulting Services (ICCS) is a national provider of healthcare infection control consulting services to a wide range of facilities, including hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, outpatient care facilities, dentists and nursing homes. Services include development of comprehensive, compliant infection prevention programs; infection prevention risk assessment; accreditation and CMS survey preparation; and infection education.