Public-Private Partnership Launches Three-Year Initiative to Combat HAIs

​The American Hospital Association's (AHA) Health Research & Education Trust and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have launched a three-year initiative to strengthen infection control practices in targeted acute care hospitals, according to a November 10, 2015, announcement. The initiative will work specifically to develop resources to reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infections, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections. "On any given day, approximately 1 in 25 hospitalized patients has a healthcare-associated infection HAI," resulting in 722,000 HAIs annually and 75,000 infection-associated deaths, writes Carolyn Gould, MD, MSCR, CDC's team lead for hospital infection prevention, on the agency's Safe Healthcare blog.