2010 Regional Project Updates - December 2010
Region II: Education and Outreach to Providers in ASCs
Region III: HAI Prevention Collaborataive
Region VI: Formative Research for Consumer-Friendly HAI Websites
Region VIII: State-based Trainings for HAI Activities
Region IX: Strengthening HAI Prevention Efforts in Small, Rural Hospitals
Region I
The New England Collaborative held their first meeting in mid-December, bringing together wide representation among those working in dialysis and infection control with national, regional and state-level perspectives. Led by the ESRD Network of New England in coordination with Betsy Rosenfeld from the Office of the Regional Health Administrator, the Collaborative includes State HAI Coordinators, dialysis providers including representatives from hospitals as well as DCI, Fresenius and DaVita, a representative from the National Renal Administrators Association (NRAA), and federal representatives from CMS, CDC, and OHQ. The meeting served as a project kick-off as well as a planning session and included an overview and update of the project itself, discussion of related ESRD-specific HAI activities, surveillance in the ESRD facility setting, and NHSN. Attendees expressed their support for the project, and the opportunity to coordinate across the region, as well as bring together representatives across HHS.
The project has enrolled nineteen facilities in four states, already exceeding its goals of enrolling twelve facilities in at least three states. Facilities enrolled in the project represent a wide variety of facilities, including independent and hospital-based, large and small facilities, and satellite centers. The project will continue to enroll facilities through January when the focus will shift to NHSN enrollment and training.
Region II
The Region II HAI Project Advisory Committee (PAC) has met twice their first meeting in early December, with representatives from the Department of Health in the participating states, CMS, CDC, HRSA, and APIC discussing project planning with the two contracting organizations. The PAC has discussed key topics to be included in the ASC-focused trainings, various options for training methods, reference materials and follow-up. The PAC is now focused on finalizing training curriculum in anticipation for the first training sessions, anticipated to begin in late spring 2011.
Region III
Representatives from the Region III states met to discuss project planning, including possible representatives for the project’s Steering Committee. Through the Steering Committee and the coordination meetings, the project will engage a variety of perspectives working in HAI prevention across the states in the region.
Region VI
The HAI Work Group has met twice to provide project support and input and includes state-level representatives from each of the Department of Health, federal representatives from AHRQ, CDC, CMS, HRSA and OHQ, and a consumer advocate representative. During the recent Work Group meeting the contractor presented the completed environmental scan that briefly reviews HAI measures, public reporting methods, and discusses the advantages of different types of online displays currently in use or underway by states in the region.
Next steps include the finalization of the protocol and recruitment processes for three healthcare consumer focus groups slated to take place in February and March 2011.
Region VIII
After consulting with all six states in Region VIII, the Region selected the three states in most need of National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) training and conducted one or two-day trainings in North Dakota, Utah, and South Dakota in November and December 2011.
The Region VIII office worked with state staff in each of the three targeted states to develop an agenda for training that best addressed the surveillance training needs of each state’s context. Approximated 200 people were trained across all three sites in NHSN surveillance, representing acute care, outpatient and long-term healthcare settings.
Region IX
A dedicated, part-time Infection Preventionist (IP) started with the project in late October 2010. Since that time, she has been working with the HAI Liaison team to prepare for her role in coordinating the focused activity in small, rural and critical access (SRC) hospitals. She has coordinated with the HAI Liaison IPs to conduct 65 onsite and 85 phone consultations to SRC hospitals and local public health agencies with a description of issues and resolution. The target is to reach all 160 SRC acute care hospitals in California
Issues were primarily related to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), the CDC supported web-based surveillance system adopted by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) in April 2010 for all mandatory HAI reporting by California acute care hospitals including SRCs. During these consultations, program IPs assisted with set-up and reviews of HAI surveillance and reporting protocols.
Nine local public health agencies were visited to discuss activities related to hospital HAI prevention, surveillance and reporting in their county catchment areas.
In addition to consultations, the project provided twenty one educational presentations and/or workshops where healthcare provider audiences were comprised of a relatively large proportion of staff from SRCs. Topics included various aspects of HAI prevention, mandatory HAI surveillance and reporting, and NHSN system and surveillance protocols.
During hospital consultations, baseline data are being collected to determine how HAI data are being utilized in hospitals. Planned prevention efforts in 2011 will focus on increasing the use of such data by hospital staff to measure progress on HAI prevention initiatives. Also planned for January 2011 is the IP’s presentation and participation in the California HAI Advisory Committee.