Action | Expanded Requirements for Reporting Healthcare-Associated Infections |
Stage | Proposed |
Comment Period | Ended on 4/1/2011 |
The proposed amendments for increased mandatory reporting will be labor intensive and redundant in some of the measures on an already stretched budget and limited resources. The opposition is not in the public reporting as we currently participate now, but in the validity or lack thereof in the data coming from a variety of facilities and units. The quality of the return on the investment is very much in question. With everyone's limited resources, we need to focus our efforts on prevention strategies, best practices, and education at the bedside where we can truly make a difference and reduce all HAI'S.
CLABSI: The proposal is for one inpatient medical ward and one inpatient surgical ward. Smaller facilities such as mine have combined units only. If you seperate the two, the numbers may be too small to be statistically significant.
C.Difficile: Definitely a growing problem that needs to be addressed first through consistent testing methods among facilities, consistent reporting of community vs healthcare or hospital acquired, etc. Numbers without validation serve no purpose in the prevention or reduction of C. difficile.
SCIP: Currently publicly reported.