Health and Human Services Announces 5-Year Plan for Infection Prevention

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a statement setting up a five-year plan to prevent infections caused by the health care industry. Most of these infections can be avoided by implementing better procedures for in-care hospital treatment and surgical practices. Known as health care-associated infections, or HAIs, the plan outlines a variety of different areas that should be looked at as part of the prevention techniques for example, infections acquired from a surgical site.

In The Action Plan to Prevent Health Care-Associated Infections, is a compiled list of programs and agencies nationwide supported by the HHS who are collaborating to reduce the death toll from HAIs and to alleviate some of the cost involved in health care as a result of inaccurate treatments or procedures that can initiate HAIs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recent statistics from 2002 estimate about 1.7 million HAIs were reported throughout hospitals in the United States and were affiliated with over 99,000 deaths. The CDC also reports that HAIs are also estimated to be causing up to 20 billion dollars a year in the health industry.

A common infection found in hospitals, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one that might have been on the news in the past year for the fight over whether or not a universal screening should be used on all patients. However, while screening for the infection may be costly, statistics show that MRSA infections since the year 2000 have more than tripled, partially due to HAIs.

By proposing a universal plan including state and local organizations, the HHS might have greater results by enabling everyone to work together toward the same uniformed goal.

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt says in a statement, “This plan will serve as our roadmap on how the department addresses this important public health and patient safety issue….This collaborative interagency plan will help the nation build a safer, more affordable health care system.”

Accounting for 75 percent of the active HAIs, there are four types of infections to be aware of while staying in or visiting a hospital. The first category is surgical site infections (SSIs), followed by central line-associated bloodstream infections, pneumonia related to use of a ventilator, and urinary tract infections from catheter-insertions. MRSA comes in close behind on that list with a smaller number of infections contracted.

In order to control and eventually try to eradicate the occurrence of HAIs, the HHS came up with a five-point draft strategy for starting their plan. The first point is to establish a steering committee for HAI prevention to further a plan of action. Point two is to prioritize the science and research components among the 1,200 clinical practices in order to facilitate a widespread healthcare implementation. The third point is to investigate the policy options of the recommended practices and oversights in order to start a hospital-wide compliance assistance program. Point four is working towards a better consistency of HAI data by using a standard form of definitions. The fifth and final point to ensuring the plan’s progress is to continue to build on the principle of patient support and choice to come up with more motivation for healthcare providers and organizations to give the best care possible.

With HAIs as a leading cause of death in the United States, it makes sense that the HHS would make these specific infections a high priority for 2009. The five-year prevention plan largely relies on the cooperation of all healthcare organizations and an agreement on the guidelines associated with patient care and prevention of HAIs as a universal standard. Remember HAIs can occur in many different settings whether on the surgical floor of a hospital, within a typical outpatient procedure room, or in long-term facilities like assisted-living or rehabilitation centers.

HHS will update the plan after public response starts to come in and they will be holding meetings throughout the spring where the public can share their comments, concerns, and ideas for regulating implementation. With lives at stake and insurmountable debt a possibility for many people and organizations because of errors involved with spreading HAIs, the HHS seems to be starting the New Year with a great resolution.

For a complete medical description of The Action Plan to Prevent Health Care-Associated Infections from the Introduction to the Appendix, including the index of abbreviation codes to understand it all go to he Department of Health and Human Services website.