Partnerships
DC HAI Advisory Committee
The District of Columbia (DC) Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) Advisory Committee is a voluntary committee charged with making recommendations to DC Government and its external healthcare stakeholders. This committee is comprised of representatives from DOH, DCHA, DCHCA, DCPCA, APIC, DC’s QIN/QIO, FEMS, OCME and other academic and coalition partners.
Vision: To help all types of healthcare facilities to provide the best possible quality of care in the District by ultimately eliminating HAIs.
Mission: To identify HAI prevention activities, recommend evidence based practices and sustainable interventions, establish targets, and monitor and communicate progress to stakeholders and the public.
The first meeting took place on September 21, 2016. Additional information, including materials from past Committee meetings can be found here. For more information about the DC HAI Advisory Committee, please contact the DOH HAI Program at [email protected].
Projects
Project Firstline
Every frontline healthcare worker should understand infection control principles and protocols and feel they can confidently apply them to protect themselves, their facility, their family and their community. The CDC and DC Health have collaborated on a new infection control training, Project Firstline. Project Firstline is designed to help every frontline healthcare worker gain that knowledge and confidence.
To stop the spread of infectious disease threats—including COVID-19—everyone working in a healthcare facility needs to know the basic building blocks of infection control. All staff must understand and be ready to implement infection control protocols and procedures throughout their workday, including during every patient care activity and healthcare interaction, and anytime they may come into contact with transmissible disease.
Project Firstline is a collaborative of diverse healthcare and public health partners that have come together to make that happen. Together, the collaborative will provide millions of frontline healthcare workers and members of the public health workforce the infection control training they need to protect themselves, their patients and their communities from infectious disease threats.
Project Firstline trainings are:
- Accessible – no matter your previous training or educational background, you’ll be able to understand each video.
- Concise – to fit around your busy schedule, each video lasts approximately 10 minutes.
- Interactive – to keep you engaged, each video has built-in knowledge checks.
Find videos and additional information on the DC Health Project Firstline webpage here.
Antibiogram Initiative
Antibiograms can serve as valuable tools in guiding empiric therapy choices. Having an aggregate summary of susceptibility information allows clinicians to have a bird’s eye view of the resistance patterns of a particular pathogen within an institution or also in a specific regional area.
It is important for clinicians to remember that antibiograms, when used in conjunction with understanding and analyzing patient-specific factors, can support making the best empiric treatment decision prior to the availability of final culture and sensitivity (C&S) results. Review of C&S data when finalized and monitoring the patient’s clinical response are critical and should inform adjustment, where appropriate, of initial antibiotic choices.
A regional human antibiogram of urinary isolates provided to DC Health from DC Skilled Nursing Facilities is available below. This document provides a high level overview of resistance patterns of urinary organisms isolated in the District.
The Healthcare Antibiotic Resistance Prevalence—DC (HARP-DC) Study
Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are of increasing concern due to their prevalence, their colonization potential, high levels of antibiotic-resistance, associated morbidity and mortality and potential for widespread transmission. CRE have been labeled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an URGENT threat. In order to control the spread of infection, CDC advocates a “coordinated regional approach” with rapid, consistent and collaborative action by the federal government, states, health care providers and patients.
In the spring of 2016, DOH's HAI Program conducted a point prevalence study in short-term acute care, long-term acute care and skilled nursing facilities within Washington, DC. The Healthcare Antibiotic Resistance Prevalence–DC (HARP–DC) study was a collaborative effort conducted in conjunction with the District of Columbia Hospital Association (DCHA), Department of Forensic Science-Public Health Lab (DFS-PHL) and OpGen Laboratories. HARP–DC was the first study of its kind to quantify the prevalence of CRE in DC healthcare facilities. For more information about this study, please refer to links below or contact the DOH HAI Program at [email protected].
Press Releases and News Reports
Programs
Infection Control Assessment and Response (ICAR) Program
DOH's HAI Program has been funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Department of Healthcare Quality and Prevention (DHQP) to conduct in-person infection control assessments within several different types of healthcare settings in DC: acute care hospitals, skilled nursing, outpatient dialysis centers and outpatient clinics. The goal of these assessments is for the HAI Program to 1) gain a big picture understanding about the infection control gaps that burden the District’s healthcare facilities, 2) develop a strong and ongoing working relationship with all of DC’s healthcare facilities and 3) determine how to best direct infection control resources in a way that aligns with local and federal priorities. These infection control assessments are meant to serve as quality improvement programs that work in collaboration with the healthcare facility being assessed.
The HAI Program will be working with the HMC-HAI Workgroup Advisory Committee and other DOH partners to refine and expand specific portions of the CDC ICAR assessment tool. This will be done in a way that is both appropriate for the specific healthcare setting and in line with local infection control priorities. Copies of the DC-specific ICAR tools will be made available on this webpage as they are developed and ready for implementation; a copy of the general CDC ICAR tools can be found at the link below:
CDC Infection Control Assessment Tools
For more information about the DC ICAR Program, contact the DOH HAI Program at [email protected].