Reducing Healthcare-Associated Infections

From Congressional Testimony by Richard Besser, Acting Director, CDC

Committee: House Appropriations
Sub-Committee: Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies

CDC and its partners have translated successful pilot projects at the local level into regional and ultimately national implementation programs. CDC funded and collaborated with the Pittsburgh Veterans Affairs Medical Center to prevent MRSA infections using CDC recommendations. These efforts led to greater than 60 percent reductions in MRSA rates. Because of this success, healthcare facilities in southwestern Pennsylvania collaborated on the development of a regional MRSA initiative and subsequently, the Veterans Health Administration launched a national MRSA prevention initiative involving every Veterans Health Administration hospital in the country, modeled after Pennsylvania's success. In order to increase adherence to CDC recommendations, CDC is working with several groups to assess the effectiveness of many other successful implementation strategies, such as Positive Deviance strategies. These and other prevention implementation examples demonstrate the savings in lives and healthcare costs that can result from national implementation of evidence-based HAI prevention programs.

Read complete testimony (pdf)