The infection prevention experts drew attention to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network, which provides reporting requirements and infrastructure for reporting of healthcare-acquired infections by healthcare providers in 23 jurisdictions. They also outlined three major challenges facing the NHSN initiative:
1. Making changes in criteria while ensuring simplicity in reporting specifications and their utilization in surveillance processes.
2. Minimizing variability in surveillance practices to ensure findings can be reliably applied.
3. Ensuring data reported to the NHSN for public reporting and other purposes are thoroughly validated.
The authors say it is important to maintain a balance between data collection, which can be burdensome, and the benefit of having actionable data through public reporting of HAIs.
Read the article about surveillance in infection prevention efforts.
Read other coverage about infection prevention:
– AHRQ Highlights Successful Strategies for Increasing CRC Screening, Infection Prevention
– Study: Cleaning Wound More Important Than Antibiotic Choice for Skin Infection
– Expert: 70% of Healthcare-Associated Infections are Preventable
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