APIC, SHEA, other major infection prevention groups update compendium of best practices

March 18th, 2015

Resources must be provided to support and maintain proven infection prevention practice, ensuring adequate hospital infection prevention staffing levels and funding to support state and federal public health coordination and leadership, the nation's leading infectious disease groups emphasize.

A Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections in Acute Care Hospitals: 2014 Updates is a collaborative effort led by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Hospital Association, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and The Joint Commission.

"A substantial proportion of HAIs are preventable," the groups state in the introduction to "Associated Infections in Acute Care Hospitals: 2014 Updates." "The improvements resulting from use of evidence-based interventions have been impressive, but significant deficiencies remain in our ability to efficiently and effectively translate existing knowledge into reliable, sustainable, widespread practice.

Updating the initial 2008 Compendium , the infectious disease groups include a forward-thinking section excerpted below that lays the groundwork for future action:

"Implementing the infection prevention recommendations described in the 2014 updates to the Compendium will lead to improvements in hospitals’ infection rates, will lower healthcare costs, and, most important, will enhance the quality of healthcare for our patients. We must maintain and extend the gains made in reducing risks of device-related HAIs, begin to control spiraling rates of MDROs, and improve adherence to those HAI prevention measures proven to be effective. Success requires the ongoing support, involvement, and shared accountability of hospital leadership, healthcare providers, payers, legislative leaders, and other members of the healthcare community who together are privileged with the responsibility for providing patients with safe, high-quality, high-value health care."