In January 2003, the Joint Commission announced the creation of an Infection Control Expert Panel, a group of individuals representing national organizations that are devoted to infection control or who have demonstrated their expertise within the field. These experts will consider and recommend ways in which current Joint Commission infection control standards can be strengthened to help prevent the occurrence and devastating impacts of nosocomial infections. The Joint Commission accredits more than 15,000 health care organizations, and the prevention of nosocomial infections is a critically important objective in all of these health care settings.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 2 million patients annually acquire an infection while hospitalized in U.S. hospitals for other health problems and that 88,000 die as a direct or indirect result of these infections. In addition to the human toll, the CDC reports that efforts to treat these infections add nearly $5 billion to health care costs every year.
The 23-member expert panel will recommend enhancements to the standards and suggest methods that can be used by the Joint Commission and organizations to improve the assessment of compliance with the standards. The progressively changing state-of-the-art in infection control has required that the Joint Commission periodically convene expert panels to recommend areas in which the standards can be strengthened. This is the third infection control expert panel to be convened in the past decade. Based on the expert panel's input, modified Joint Commission infection control standards are expected to be introduced in 2004.
In addition to evaluating compliance with infection control standards during its regular triennial surveys, the Joint Commission has:
- Included infection control as a special focus area during random unannounced surveys for hospitals in 2003.
- Sent a Dear Colleague letter to all accredited organizations stating that nosocomial infections are underreported to the Joint Commission Sentinel Event database.
- Issued a Sentinel Event Alert on infection control related sentinel events.
- Transmitted the CDC's recently updated handwashing guidelines to all accredited organizations to draw specific attention to this significant advance in preventing hospital-acquired infections and other attention to infection control issues.
Members
The members of the Infection Control Expert Panel were drawn from national organizations devoted to infection control, or individuals who have demonstrated their expertise within the infection control field. Members are:
Mary Alexander, BS, CRNI
Infusion Nurses Society
Judene Bartley, MS, MPH, CIC
American Hospital Association
Marianne Billeter, PharmD
American Society for Health-System Pharmacists
John M. Boyce, MD, FACP
HICPAC/SHEA/APIC/IDSA Hand Hygiene Task Force
John Bryan, MD, FASCP
American Society of Clinical Pathologists
John D. Christie, MD, PhD, FCAP
College of American Pathologists
Georgia Dash, RN, MS, CIC
Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
Loreen A. Herwaldt, MD
American Society of Microbiology
Elaine Larson, RN, PhD, AAN, CIC
American Nurses Association
John Molinari, PhD
American Dental Association
Gary Overturf, MD
Pediatric Infectious Disease Society
Vicki Pritchard, RN, MS
Joint Commission (Surveyor)
Gina Pugliese, RN, MS
American Society for Healthcare Risk Management
Jeffery Roche, MD, MPH
American Public Health Association
Matthew Samore, MD
American College of Physicians
William E. Scheckler, MD
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine
Steve Solomon, MD
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Bryan Simmons, MD
Methodist Health System
Keith St. John, MT (ASCP), MS, CIC
Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology
Michael Tapper, MD
Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
Jeremiah G. Tilles, MD
American Medical Association
Robert Weinstein, MD
Infectious Diseases Society of America
Dale Woodin, CHFM
American Society of Healthcare Engineers
For more information
More information about the Infection Control Expert Panel, please contact Robert Wise, M.D., Vice President, Standards, at rwise@jointcommission.org.