Gear up for Mandatory Reporting Rates of Hospital-acquired Infections

AUDIOCONFERENCE ON TAPE OR CD
Sponsored by "Briefings on Infection Control"

presented on April 17, 2007

Let us help you plan for mandatory reporting of hospital-acquired infection rates.

States are requiring it. Patients are demanding it. Regulatory agencies are drafting standards as fast as they can. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has made infection control a top priority, issuing guidelines to help fight the problem that annually attacks 2 million patients, kills 90,000, and racks up costs of to $4.5 to 5.7 billion dollars a year, according to the CDC. The increase in hospital acquired infections has become a public relations nightmare for many facilities. Consumers are afraid to enter a hospital, and they’re calling on legislators to seek a solution—now.

There’s a good chance that very soon, your state will pass a law requiring that your facility report infection rates to a national reporting system monitored by state health departments. You’ll need to be prepared. You’ll need to create a solid trail of data collection and reportage.

Rise to the challenge of mandatory reporting initiatives, and you just may lower infection rates and improve your facility’s public image.

This 90-minute audioconference will help you develop a system to meet the challenges the new laws will bring. During How to Handle Mandatory Reporting of HAIs and Infection Rates, infection control experts Angela Camiolo, RN, CIC, and Michael Olesen, MPH, CIC, help you understand the process for public reporting. They give you the latest news, outline the pros and cons of a mandatory system, and help you assemble the resources to get you through—so that you’ll be ready when surveyors, inspectors and other officials walk through your doors. You’ll achieve consistency in gathering data and improve care along the way.

This is an intermediate program. Participants should have a basic understanding of where their state stands on mandatory reporting and what infrastructure and support is available and/or is needed within their facility.

PROGRAM AGENDA

1. Current Situation: New Focus on HAIs
• Healthcare and Industry Attention
• National healthcare quality initiatives
• Legislative and regulatory interest
• Consumer demand for HAI rate information
• Issues of Debate
• Advocates' stance
• Opponents' stance

Premise: Whether your facility is required to report infection rates, recent regulatory, legislative, and grass-roots attention demand your facility reassess its current systems of accountability for tracking of healthcare-associated infections.

2. Current Methods of Reporting

• Elements of a basic hospital plan
• Working with outside agencies
• Challenges in reporting certain infections

3. Going Mandatory: Amending Your Reporting Methods

• Amending basic plan
• Instituting education of staff, physicians, and patients
• Effects on the revenue cycle

A30-minute Q&A will follow the presentation.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of the program, participants will be able to:

• list available resources for education, training and support of the criteria needed for standardized, comparable rates
• develop and share tools and policies to strengthen the IC program at the facility level
• facilitate process improvement activities through education to promote better patient outcomes
• describe how outcome measures are far less desirable than process measure in reporting rates

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Angela Camiolo, RN, CIC, is the infection control practitioner at Memorial Health System in Colorado Springs, CO. She adds a strong background in policy. She is an active member of APIC, and has created strategies to help facility managers control healthcare-associated infections.

Michael Olesen, MPH, CIC, brings experience in disaster planning and political involvement to his clinical background. A member of the Minnesota APIC mandatory reporting workgroup, he also serves on the national APIC emergency preparedness committee. He is a member of the MDH/MN-APIC Emerging Pathogens Task Force, and the Minnesota Center for Healthcare Ethics Pandemic Influenza committee.

WHO SHOULD LISTEN?

• Risk managers
• Patient Safety Officers
• CFOs
• CEOs
• Joint Commission Survey Coordinators
• Infection Control Professionals
• Quality Directors

PROGRAM MATERIALS

Program materials and the tools included in the packet are provided with PDF links. Purchase a tape or CD of the program and listen when you can. It's also a perfect training tool for new staff or as a refresher for veteran staff.

• Audio Conferences

• Other Safety Products