Educating Policymakers about Strategies for Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections

ASTHO monitors developments in HAI-related policies and initiatives, shares this information with members, and enhances collaboration with partners. ASTHO increases state and territorial health agency capacity to address HAIs by developing and disseminating such tools as

• Eliminating Healthcare-Associated Infections: State Policy Options, a toolkit released by ASTHO in partnership with CDC in 2011.
• Policies for Eliminating Healthcare-Associated Infections: Lessons Learned from State Stakeholder Engagement, released by ASTHO and CDC in January 2012 as a companion to the policy toolkit. It examines the early impact of policies to prevent HAIs and was based on input from stakeholders in 10 states.
• Policy Backgrounder: HAI Prevention and Policy Implementation, released by ASTHO in February 2013. This two-page brief synthesizes key messages from ASTHO's HAI policy reports and serves as a tool for educating policymakers about HAI prevention.
• Real-time State HAI Legislative Tracking on ASTHO’s website.

To educate stakeholders about policies and practices for HAI prevention, ASTHO shares these materials and learns from state experiences at national meetings, such as the ASTHO Policy Summit and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists annual meeting.

ASTHO has formally evaluated the impact of its HAI policy education work. To collect states’ experience-driven feedback, ASTHO administered a survey in December 2011 to HAI coordinators (100% response rate) and state legislative liaisons (35% response rate) in 14 states that had introduced HAI-related bills in 2011. The survey’s purpose was to inventory existing HAI-related legislation to understand what types of legislation were being enacted and to assess the usefulness of and states’ experiences with the HAI policy toolkit.

• About 40% of respondents cited public concern and/or consumer advocacy as factors influencing recent state HAI legislation.
• More than one-third of respondents mentioned federal drivers, such as funding, participation in the National Healthcare Safety Network, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requirements as factors that influenced development of state HAI legislation.
• When bills were passed, respondents identified factors such as 1) working with stakeholders (e.g., hospital associations) to address stakeholder needs, 2) a strong sponsor, and 3) support from public health and healthcare leadership.
• When bills were not passed, respondents identified factors such as lack of support from stakeholders or health departments.
• The majority of respondents (71%) were familiar with the HAI policy toolkit. Respondents from six states used the toolkit during the previous legislative session, reporting that it was one resource used to educate legislators and other stakeholders about policies similar to the ones being considered in legislation. Respondents from eight states planned to use it during the subsequent legislative session.