National Action Plan to Prevent Health Care-Associated Infections: Road Map to Elimination

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP)

In recognition of health care-associated infections (HAIs) as an important public health and patient safety issue, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) convened the Federal Steering Committee for the Prevention of Health Care-Associated Infections (originally called the HHS Steering Committee, but was changed to reflect the addition of agencies outside of HHS). The Steering Committee’s charge is to coordinate and maximize the efficiency of prevention efforts across the federal government. Members of the Steering Committee include clinicians, scientists, and public health leaders representing:

National Action Plans

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

National Action Plans are developed with expert input to provide a framework for collaboration among Government and non-Government entities toward large goals that have significant impact on the Nation’s health.

  • Road Map to Elimination (HAI Action Plan) provides a road map for preventing HAIs in acute care hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, end-stage renal disease facilities, and long-term care facilities.
  • National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Events identifies the Federal Government’s highest priority strategies and opportunities for advancement and seeks to engage stakeholders in a coordinated, aligned, multisector, and health-literate effort to reduce the ADEs that are most common, clinically significant, preventable, and measurable.
  • National Action Plan on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria provides a roadmap to guide the Nation in rising to the challenge of antibiotic resistance. It outlines steps for implementing the National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and addressing the policy recommendations of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Antibiotic Resistance & Patient Safety Portal

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Interactive web-based application that was created to innovatively display data collected through CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), the Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network (AR Lab Network), and other sources.  It offers enhanced data visualizations on Antibiotic Resistance, Use, and Stewardship datasets as well as Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI) data.

STRIVE Infection Control Training

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

The CDC/STRIVE curriculum was developed by national infection prevention experts led by the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) for CDC. Courses address both the technical and foundational elements of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) prevention. Courses can be taken in any order. Each course has 1 or more modules. Individual modules can be used for; new employee training, annual infection prevention training, and/or periodic training.

Guidelines for the Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-related Infection (BSI)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

These guidelines have been developed for healthcare personnel who insert intravascular catheters and for persons responsible for surveillance and control of infections in hospital, outpatient, and home healthcare settings. The guidelines provide a summary of recommendations to prevent Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections.

Toolkit for Reducing Central Line-Associated Blood Stream Infections

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

The Toolkit for Reducing Central Line-Associated Blood Stream Infections (CLABSI) can help your unit implement evidence-based practices to reduce and, in many cases, eliminate CLABSI. More than 1,000 intensive care units across the country reduced CLABSI rates by 41 percent when their clinical teams used the tools in this toolkit along with the Core CUSP Toolkit. The Core CUSP Toolkit provides training materials and resources to help clinical teams learn a method that can help them make care safer by combining improved teamwork, clinical best practices, and the science of safety.