Official Summary

10/31/2007--Introduced.Community and Healthcare-Associated Infections Reduction Act of 2007 - Directs the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to develop best-practices guidelines for internal infecti

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Official Summary

10/31/2007--Introduced.
Community and Healthcare-Associated Infections Reduction Act of 2007 - Directs the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to develop best-practices guidelines for internal infection control plans to prevent, detect, control, and treat community and healthcare-associated infections at hospitals.
Requires AHRQ to:
(1) establish best practices with supporting justification, including the establishment of an infection control oversight committee;
(2) collaborate with other agencies and organizations whose area of expertise is the identification, treatment, and prevention of infectious disease;
(3) publish proposed guidelines;
(4) provide for a comment period of not less than 90 days; and
(5) establish final guidelines. Directs the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to:
(1) consult best practices guidelines in evaluating hospitals' infection control plans as a condition of participation in the Medicare program; and
(2) report to Congress on the feasibility of reducing healthcare-associated infection rates through a Quality Improvement Payment Program. Requires:
(1) hospitals to report information about community and healthcare-associated infections to the CDC National Healthcare Safety Network, which shall be used by the CDC to develop a national database of infection rates in hospitals;
(2) the Director of the CDC to award grants to states to carry out public awareness campaigns;
(3) the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to expand and intensify NIH programs regarding research and related activities concerning such infections;
(4) the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish an interagency working group on community and healthcare-associated infections; and
(5) the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report to Congress on this Act's impact.


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