State Experiences with Policies for Eliminating Healthcare-Associated Infections

Brief Summary:
Presenters: (1) CDC/ASTHO to provide overview of HAI policy materials (2) state health official to highlight public health role (3) state HAI coordinators and/or legal experts to discuss implementation of HAI policy, including capacity for outbreak response and data validation. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and CDC have collaborated since July 2010 to advance state-level HAI prevention efforts.  The March 2011 CDC/ASTHO toolkit, Eliminating Healthcare-Associated Infections: State Policy Options, provides guidance to policy-makers on various promising ways to use legal and policy interventions to implement a comprehensive HAI prevention program. In August 2012, the CDC published the Menu of Selected Provisions in Healthcare-Associated Infection Laws, a companion to the toolkit and a resource that helps attorneys and public health practitioners understand the variety of provisions in state HAI laws. The Menu provides examples from state statutes related to the range of policy topics found in HAI laws. The January 2012 report, Policies for Eliminating Healthcare-Associated Infections: Lessons from State Stakeholder Engagement, builds on the HAI policy toolkit and examines the early impact of policy. The 150 participating stakeholders included state and local health agencies, consumer and patient groups, quality improvement organizations, hospitals and hospital associations, outpatient settings, healthcare professionals, and healthcare payers. Among their observations, the stakeholders identified specific legal interventions, such as mandating public reporting, as key drivers in reducing HAI.  To further explore this relationship, ASTHO, CDC, and partners (Public Health Law Research, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program at Temple University; Columbia University; and The Keystone Center) undertook a legal evaluation on the implementation of laws, or the absence of an HAI law, in selected states to identify facilitators and barriers for successful state HAI programs.  This innovative legal research method continues to incorporate stakeholder feedback and the results of the 50-state assessment of HAI laws conducted in prior CDC/ASTHO policy work. Findings will be available in early 2013. Participants in this session will learn more about the ASTHO and CDC policy project, receive the written tools, hear the perspective of a state health official, and learn from states implementing policies to prevent HAI. Panelists will emphasize how HAI policies have supported an infrastructure that is ready to respond to outbreaks such as the recent HCV and fungal meningitis outbreaks.  In addition, the discussion will focus on ongoing efforts to ensure that valid data are available to inform prevention.