BACKGROUND: In October 2015, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) launched an assessment to understand healthcare-associated infection (HAI) programs’ resources, capacity, and experience as of January 1, 2014, (pre-Ebola funding). The assessment focused on two main activities: (1) Infection Prevention and Control and (2) Drug Diversion Investigation. This presentation focuses specifically on infection prevention resources and capacity within state health departments in 2014.
METHODS: The assessment was sent to State HAI Coordinators and State Epidemiologists and was completed by 50 jurisdictions.
RESULTS: The assessment revealed that 27 jurisdictions (54%) had at least one infection control professional/infection preventionist (IP) in their HAI program. Of these, 22 (82%) were CIC, and 19 were considered full time (70%). Of the 23 jurisdictions that did not have an IP within the HAI program, 8 (35%) responded that there was an IP readily accessible to the HAI program somewhere else in their health department or agency to help meet programmatic objectives and activities. The assessment showed that 41 jurisdictions (82%) did not have a hospital epidemiologist (HE) in their HAI program. Of these, only 3 (7%) responded that there was an HE available to the HAI program elsewhere in the health department or agency to help meet programmatic objectives. Respondents were also asked to describe the infection prevention and control resources within or available to their HAI program. Four (8%) described them as fully adequate, or able to support all programmatic objectives and activities; 25 (50%) described them as somewhat adequate, or able to support most programmatic objectives and activities; 14 (28%) described them as not adequate, or able to support only a few programmatic objectives and activities; and 7 (14%) described them as ‘other’, which included responses that described their agencies as having few or no IPs/HEs, but having external expertise available to meet objectives. Twenty seven (54%) respondents indicated that their jurisdiction’s HAI program had difficulty recruiting IPs/HEs. Recruitment challenges included: a non-competitive pay scale (90%), insecure funding for the position (66%), lack of qualified IPs/HEs available (52%), location of job opening (28%), and administrative delays (10%).
CONCLUSIONS: This assessment indicates important gaps in State HAI program resources and capacity. State and federal partners should collaborate to increase and improve the capacity of personnel within state public health HAI programs to effectively address their new evolving roles in HAI surveillance and prevention.