Statement by Blair Childs, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs
Premier applauds the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for dedicating $2.1 billion to improve infection prevention and control activities across the U.S. and healthcare sectors. However, we believe the CDC missed an important opportunity to address longstanding technology and interoperability gaps that could enable better infection control and management, such as maximizing abilities of facilities to report to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).
Unfortunately, long-term care facilities and other post-acute settings still have varying levels of health information technology capabilities. Some facilities still use paper records and manual data collection processes. Additionally, clinical analytics technologies are not commonly available or employed. We urge CDC and its partner agencies to support providers and public health authorities to adopt and implement technology-enabled clinical surveillance solutions and interventions in nursing homes and other facilities to improve quality and save lives.