Companion Report to HAI Policy Toolkit Released by the CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) have released a new companion report to last year's HAI Policy Toolkit.

To learn more about promising ways states use legal and policy interventions as tools to enhance state HAI prevention programs, visit:  http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/prevent/astho-policy-toolkit.html.

In March 2011, ASTHO and CDC jointly released the toolkit Eliminating Healthcare-Associated Infections: State Policy Options, which is available at www.astho.org/HAI_Policy_Toolkit. This toolkit provides guidance to senior policy-makers on various promising ways to use legal and policy interventions to implement a comprehensive HAI prevention program. The toolkit assesses the landscape of state policies to advance HAI prevention and will benefit states wishing to initiate or enhance existing HAI policies. The policies described in the toolkit include public reporting options, advisory councils, financial incentives and disincentives, and licensure and training requirements. To inform development of the toolkit, ASTHO assembled an expert working group of HAI prevention leaders nationwide, including state health agency staff, legislative liaisons, legal counsel, infection preventionists, epidemiologists and consumer advocates.

The Policies for Eliminating Healthcare-Associated Infections: Lessons from State Stakeholder Engagement report is phase II of the project. Phase II builds on the HAI policy toolkit and examines the early impact of policy. It is based on phone consultations with stakeholders from seven states and in-person meetings with broad representation in three states. The 150 participating stakeholders represented state and local health agencies, consumer and patient groups, quality improvement organizations, hospitals and hospital associations, outpatient settings, healthcare professionals and healthcare payors.