Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111389

Y. Silvia Walker, RN, MSN/MPH(c), Rachael Lee, RN, MSN/MPH, CNS, and Dawn Terashita, MD, MPH. Acute Communicable Disease Control Program, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, 313 N. Figueroa Street Rm. 212, Los Angeles, CA 90012, 213-989-7219, ywalker@ladhs.org

Acute care facility outbreaks are defined as clusters of nosocomial infections occurring above a baseline or threshold level for a facility or specific unit. Reporting of possible health facility outbreaks to Public Health is fundamental to the prevention, control and monitoring of diseases. Under California law, an outbreak of disease within the facility shall be reported to the local health jurisdiction. However, outbreaks are generally under-reported for various reasons such as lack of knowledge of disease reporting mandates, fear of negative consequences, and lack of resources. In an effort to collaborate with hospitals more efficiently in Los Angeles County (LAC), Acute Communicable Disease Control (ACDC) program initiated a Liaison Public Health Nursing Project in November 2003. Liaison public health nurses (LPHNs) have partnered with hospital infection control professionals (ICPs) and other key hospital personnel to assess hospitals' reporting systems, improve the disease reporting processes, and provide consultation, education/training, and other public health services and referrals. This presentation will describe utilization of the Public Health Nursing Practice Model in the LPHN Project to fulfill its objectives to improve reporting of diseases from acute care health facilities in LAC. The model provides a framework for an interdisciplinary team approach in assessing disease reporting practices and beliefs of the facilities, identifying measurable outcomes, developing plans to improve reporting rates, and evaluating the effectiveness of services provided by describing the disease outbreak reporting rates. The outcome has been an increase in outbreak and illness situation reporting from acute care facilities in LAC during 2004 and in January 2005 compared to previous years. The number of acute care facility outbreak increased in 2004 (n=29) compared to 2003 (n=8) and the previous 5-year average (18.2) by 262% and 59%, respectively. In January 2005, there were 12 outbreaks reported in acute care facilities compared to 3 outbreaks reported in January 2004.

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