Name of session: Development and Assessment of Surveillance Competency Among Infection Preventionists
Presented by: Kelly L Holmes, MS, CIC – IP&MA, Inc and Mishga Moinuddin, MPH, CIC – Infection Prevention & Management Associates
Key learnings:
a. The role of NHSN is as a conduit to complying with CMS infection reporting requirements and is the nation's most widely used HAI tracking system. NHSN data is posted publicly.
b. It is problematic that 60% of IPs report feeling competent/experts in surveillance and report that it's on average ¼ of their workload… but per a 2016 AJIC study, accurate application of surveillance definitions ranged from 16%-87% with average of 62.5%. Education is available and voluntary; not mandatory.
c. Case study scenarios were developed using NHSN definitions based on real chart reviews to use for HAI surveillance training for IPs and for annual competency. They were cases identified as 'challenging' and PHI was removed, and the scenarios were also peer reviewed by another IP (changed as needed based on definition updates). The presenters discussed the successful use of repeated participation in structured surveillance training to improve accuracy in coding HAIs. Their findings suggest that IPs across all competency-levels benefit from this kind of training, and that structured interventions led to statistically significant improvement in case study test scores vs self-study group showed no significant improvement. Awesome work!
How I will apply learnings: Wow, this really highlights how complex HAI Surveillance is. I LOVED practicing the case study in the presentation, oh my goodness! As an IP learning HAI Surveillance, this practice with rationale is really helpful. I will apply my learnings continuing to grow in my role performing HAI surveillance- what an awesome presentation and great idea. I want more practice case studies!!
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