Policy Updates

As of January 3, the amount of acute respiratory illness causing people to seek healthcare is at a high level and continues to increase nationally. Emergency department visits for influenza and RSV are very high and increasing in most of the country. COVID-19 activity is low but also increasing. Learn more and find respiratory illness … Continued

The Joint Commission’s revised Infection Prevention and Control (IC) chapter, including new and revised requirements, has been approved for all Joint Commission-accredited office-based surgery (OBS) practices and behavioral health and human services (BHC) organizations. Read updated prepublication standards for these care settings.

The first case of clade I mpox in the U.S. was confirmed by the California Department of Public Health. The patient had recently traveled from a region in Africa where the strain is circulating. The person isolated at home and there is no evidence that mpox clade I is spreading in the U.S.  Read more.

The FDA announced that Baxter Healthcare Corporation issued an Urgent Medical Device Recall of certain lots of Solution Sets with Duo-Vent Spikes due to incorrect assembly with inverted side clamps. An inverted side clamp may not allow medication to be delivered, and the patient’s blood may backflow into the set and source container. Read more.

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) released the U.S. DHHS All-Hazards Plan, HHS’s emergency operations framework for coordinated departmental response and recovery from disasters and public health emergencies. It provides an all-discipline all-hazards approach to coordinated federal public health, medical, human services, and social services assistance to support state and local governments’ activities … Continued

APIC provided comments to Leapfrog in response to its proposed updates to the 2025 Leapfrog Hospital Survey. APIC’s recommendations included adding subsections on infection preventionist staffing (Section 5) and patient bathing (Section 6) and reducing the number of required hand hygiene observations (Section 6C). Read APIC’s comments.

The NHSN team has scheduled training webinars on the new 2022 Rebaseline reports. Register here for the Wednesday, December 18 1-2 pm ET webinar on SSI reports. Register here for the Thursday, December 19 2-3 pm ET webinar on MRSA LabID events. Webinars will also be recorded and posted to the NHSN Rebaseline Education webpage.

CMS has issued revised guidance on Appendix Q which indicates when an immediate jeopardy citation is warranted. The full outline and memo can be found here.

CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) met November 14-15, 2024 to discuss updates to the Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel Guideline and the Part 1 Draft update to the Isolation Precautions Guideline. The committee approved draft recommendations to the Viral Respiratory Infections section of the IC in HCP Guideline, which will now go … Continued