141st APHA Annual Meeting

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276193
Healthcare-associated infections: A national patient safety problem and the coordinated response

Monday, November 4, 2013 : 2:30 PM - 2:45 PM

Rita Rani Jeeva, MPH, CPH , Division of Healthcare Quality, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Rockville, MD
In recent years, the Federal Government has placed an increasing focus on improving the quality, value, and cost-effectiveness of the healthcare delivered in the United States, especially as seen through passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a serious national patient safety problem and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Federal investments to build national and state capacity to address HAIs have been substantial. National strategies to reduce HAIs are encompassed in the “National Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections: Roadmap to Elimination” and the many activities across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that implement the HAI Action Plan. These efforts are aligned with similar robust efforts of national stakeholder organizations. The overall program's success, including both private and public sector efforts, is seen in the progress according to the measures and reduction goals in the HAI Action Plan. The national program includes a combination of components. Chief among them is the alignment of programs and policy incentives to the HAI Action Plan and the overall coordinating structure put in place by the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. Even as the current program continues to evolve, it serves as a model for other approaches to complex national health problems and as a foundation for broader efforts to reduce preventable harm to patients.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Program planning
Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control
Public health or related public policy
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Describe the U.S. Federal Government's approach to a national healthcare quality problem, specifically healthcare-associated infections

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have managed the Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention Initiative at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health since the program's inception in 2008. I have also represented our office and spoken at numerous meetings on the topic of healthcare-associated infections, including our coordinated program. My focus in graduate school was infectious disease epidemiology and national healthcare quality policy.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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