Healthcare-associated infection prevention toolkits no longer reflected the latest evidence and innovations.

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a major cause of illness, affecting hospitalized patients and resulting in infections across the United States. HAI prevention efforts have been impacted by rising HAI cases during the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for updated infection prevention evidence and toolkits. Antimicrobial resistance also threatens our ability to effectively treat many HAIs as an increase of resistant bacterial strains have been identified for all currently used antibiotics, and few new antibiotics are under development.

While HAI prevention evidence-based toolkits exist, they do not reflect the most recent evidence and the latest healthcare innovations. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is sponsoring the Safety Program for HAI Prevention to develop and implement updated evidence-based patient safety practices for HAI prevention in acute care settings.

NORC and Johns Hopkins University leads the AHRQ Safety Program for HAI Prevention to implement evidence-based HAI prevention practices.

AHRQ partnered with NORC and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) to conduct the AHRQ Safety Program for HAI Prevention. This is a multi-year effort focusing on the development, implementation, and assessment of evidence-based HAI prevention patient safety practices across three cohorts of intensive care units (ICUs) and non-ICUs to improve:

• Central-line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs)

• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs)

• Ventilator-associated pneumonia or ventilator-associated events (VAP/VAEs)

The program will provide participating units with updated evidence and best practices, along with technical assistance from subject matter experts. NORC and JHU will lead the revision, implementation, and evaluation of the updated HAI prevention toolkits across the three cohorts.