REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON INFECTIOUS DISEASES
CM-ID Report 1-A-06
Subject: Infectious Disease Update
Presented by: Jan Patterson, MD, Chair
Mandatory Reporting of Hospital Infections Update
During the past legislative session, a bill was passed requiring the Texas Department of State Health Services (DHSH) to convene a panel of experts to advise and make recommendations on a statewide system to report health-care-acquired infections. Specifically, the Advisory Panel on Health Care Associated Infections is required to study and recommend definitions and methodologies for collecting and reporting evidence-based data on infection rates and/or process measures. The panel must conclude their study and make recommendations to the department for submission to the legislature no later than Nov. 1, 2006.
The panel, appointed by the commissioner of state health services, is comprised of consumers, infection control professionals, physicians, and health care facility leaders. Last July, TMA President Bob Gunby, MD, recommended the following TMA physicians participate on this panel: Jan Patterson, MD, San Antonio; Robert Haley, MD, Dallas; and Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, MD, Houston.
To date, panel activities include surveying hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers to assess current infection prevention and control activities. Additionally, they have agreed that a statewide reporting system in Texas include the following: establishing objectives for public reporting; choosing outcomes to measure; choosing the reporting interval; risk-adjusting infection rates; making special provisions for small and specialty hospitals; deciding on exact data items to collect; and determining how to report and publish results.
Pandemic Flu Update
TMA continues to participate in the Pandemic Flu stakeholder meetings to assist in development of a state pandemic influenza plan. The draft DSHS Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plan provides guidance to local health departments in working with their community leaders, discussing the allocation and distribution of vaccines and antivirals, updating designs for mass vaccination clinics, and providing information for health care providers and community leaders.
TMA House of Delegates: TexMed 2006