Correspondence with NCHS

Attachment K

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Sisk, Jane E. (CDC/OSELS/NCHS)
Monday, August 16, 2010 10:21 AM
Magill, Shelley (CDC/OID/NCPDCID)
Fridkin, Scott MD (CDC/OID/NCPDCID); Sonnenfeld, Nancy
(CDC/OSELS/NCHS)
NCHS consultation for HAI/antimicrobial use prevalence survey

Dear Dr. Magill:
To summarize the results of our conference call June 14, we discussed and came to agreement on the
following:
1)
The Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP)/CDC will not be able to obtain national
estimates of health-care-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial use prevalence from the phase 3
survey in Emerging Infections Program (EIP) sites.
2)
The proposed survey objectives have been modified to clearly reflect that DHQP/CDC will estimate
the prevalence of HAIs and antimicrobial use in a large sample of U.S. acute care inpatients within the
EIP catchment area and will use experience from phases 2 and 3 to refine the survey methods.
3)
Currently it is not possible to obtain valid prevalence estimates for all types of HAIs in acute care
facilities using administrative data. Comprehensive review of medical record data remains necessary at
this point.
4)
Currently it is not possible to conduct an HAI and antimicrobial use prevalence survey using the
existing National Hospital Discharge Survey, and none of us is aware of other nationally representative
samples of health-care facilities that CDC could use to obtain national estimates of HAI and antimicrobial
use prevalence in the short term.
As this project is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, given time and resource
constraints, your proposed methods—to engage facilities within the catchment areas of the EIP and use
EIP personnel and infrastructure to collect data—appear to be reasonable for the purposes of this work.
We look forward to an improved understanding of the relationship between HAI prevalence and hospital
demographics that may allow for a more definitive assessment in the future. In the meantime, we look
forward to working with you to consider ways to make the sample of facilities representative within each
EIP site, and to consider ways to maximize participation of these facilities.
Best,
Jane
jsisk@cdc.gov
Jane E. Sisk, Ph.D.
Director, Division of Health Care Statistics
National Center for Health Statistics
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
3311 Toledo Road
Hyattsville, MD 20782
telephone 1 301 458 4182
fax 1 301 458 4693