Friday, April 12, 2019

Hospital Epidemiologists Need To Be in The C-Suite

Hospital epidemiologists need to be in the C-suite.

As we are driven by the central tenet of healthcare, ‘primum non nocere,’  we should relentlessly strive for zero potentially preventable infections.  Healthcare systems espouse this ideal. Unfortunately, current leadership structure may hinder best practices in infection prevention

At present, mission goals and critical  decisions are filtered to us by way of C-suite leaders.  We are simply not part of high-level discussions and strategic decision making. This is a shame. 

We have the requisite training in epidemiology so as to make rigorous, data driven decisions and set evidence based priorities for infection prevention and safety. With this comes expertise in getting things done, grounded in implementation science.

Our ethical mandate for safe and reliable care is anchored to individual and system accountability,  we need to be in the C-suite to provide executive oversight of safety goals.