The Office of Healthcare is calling for abstracts for the 2012 Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) Data Summit. The Abstract Committee will review and select abstracts for exhibit that support the vision of the Data Summit: adding efficiencies to and enhancing the value of the supply chain of HAI data.
Abstracts should align with primarily one of the six 2012 HAI Data Summit key questions concerning methodology, technology, and public reporting. The key questions are:
When, how, and for which HAIs should the transition be made from traditional methods of case finding and reporting—that depend to a large extent on application of written protocol instructions by individuals working in healthcare facilities and manual methods of data collection and data entry—to computer-based algorithms for case detection and use of electronic data sources for populating and submitting numerator and denominator records?
With increasing adoption of electronic health record systems and advances in information technology for detecting and reporting HAIs and collecting and submitting closely related data, what actions need to be initiated or intensified to assure that the data supply chain is as fully developed and widely used as possible, produces data that are valid, and meets prevention, public reporting, and payment purposes?
With the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) analyzing and reporting HAI data acquired through a variety of programs and systems, each with its own methodology, and because these differences sometimes produce estimates of HAI scope, magnitude, or trends that are incongruent, what are the priorities of stakeholder groups as policies for HAI data reporting are being addressed?
What policies and standards are needed to facilitate consistent public reporting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) data at the state and federal levels and how should those policies be identified or developed or maintained?
What can and should be done to improve, extend, and sustain efforts at the local, state, and national levels to validate facility-specific HAI data that are collected, analyzed, and publicly reported?
The deadline for submission is Friday, May 11, 2012.
