This news article published in USA Today reports how the Trump administration may propose legislation that will stop the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from publicly disclosing data on healthcare associated infections (HAIs). Although the body of literature assessing the impact of public HAI reporting is limited, there is some evidence to suggest that publicly reported data heightens awareness and enhances focus on risk reduction practices. A recent report can be found here in Health Services Research.
I recall a time when awareness, focus and resources for actually implementing HAI risk reduction practices in the hospital was limited. Healthcare epidemiology was more a descriptive discipline that focused on defining HAI risk factors.
Now, we both describe and act on HAIs-through risk reduction implementation science.
This is both the present and future- we 'describe' and 'do'.
Removing external oversight and public reporting would allow hospital administration to toggle the support and executive oversight of hospital infection prevention down the ladder of priority.
The likely result: more patient harm.
