AAMI Offers Draft Infection Control Survey Tool

A draft hospital infection control survey tool developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of Clinical Standards and Quality Control (OCSQ), is available on the website of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI).

The tool is being used in the pretest phase of the Partnership for Patients initiative with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CMS has field-tested the tool in surveys and received feedback from the survey teams. The next iteration will be completed in January 2012 and, after further training, all 50 states will use it at least once before the end of Fiscal Year 2012. With more feedback, the final tool will be completed in time for a possible Fiscal Year 2013 implementation into the CMS survey process. Thus far, the only change will be the removal of the final question in both sections.

The tool was presented to the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) and to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in June, as well as to liaison and accrediting organizations, for their comment and feedback.