A Preventable Epidemic” will be held on April 16th at 10 a.m. before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

 

The committee, chaired by Representative Henry Waxman, will address the issue of which steps may next be taken to address Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs).  The hearing is designed to serve as a solution-oriented response to a soon-to-be-issued Government Accountability Office (GAO) report calling for additional federal leadership to help prevent HAIs.  You may listen to the hearing via a link that we will send along as soon as it’s posted.

 

Chairman Waxman’s office has been extremely receptive to input from key APIC leaders in developing HAI background leading up to this hearing, which we hope will now include a productive exchange of ideas that will assist in moving this issue forward, bringing to the fore the critical importance that infection prevention and control professionals have in the development of solutions to this problem.

 

This hearing is a continuation of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s interest in the issue of multiple drug resistant organisms (MDROs).  Chairman Waxman, along with Ranking Member Thomas M. Davis III [R-VA], convened another hearing on November 7, 2007 entitled, “Drug-resistant Infections in the Community:  Consequences for Public Health.”  A link to testimony from the 2007 can be found here http://oversighthouse.gov/story.asp?ID=1598

 

As with all government efforts to address HAIs, this hearing is a key opportunity to highlight infection prevention and control professionals (ICPs) as the “boots on the ground” in this effort to prevent infections.