The Leapfrog Group and AARP invite support from stakeholders and consumers to advocate with House and Senate leaders to require all health care facilities in the United States to report rates of health care associated infections and other infections such as COVID-19.
As Congress considers needed policies to subsidize health care providers hard hit by the COVID-19 crisis, we are recommending that legislation also require those providers to report their infection rates on an ongoing basis. We are advocating legislation that would expand the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) systematic national monitoring and public reporting of health care acquired infection rates and the virus linked to COVID-19. The structure for this collection and reporting is already in place with the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and general hospitals are already required to report on inpatient care.
We recommend expanding required reporting to include a broader scope of institutions than are required to report now, including long term care facilities, dialysis centers, ambulatory surgery centers, and outpatient surgery units at hospitals. Systematic monitoring and reporting on the national level protects the public from infections that currently kill an estimated 99,000 people a year, and greatly enhances national preparedness for current and future pandemics.
Thank you to those who signed onto our letter. It is now closed for sign-ons and is being shared on the Hill.