Assessing the healthcare epidemiology environment—A roadmap for SHEA’s future

Monitoring health disparities in healthcare-associated infection surveillance: A Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Research Network (SRN) Survey

“…3,4 Health equity and social justice are organizational priorities for the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), which has committed to "developing interventions that counter the role of racism, discrimination, and other forms of marginalization that result in inequities of care." 5 The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has declared racism a public health emergency. 6 However, there are no national standards on whether information related to equity and SDOH should be included in HAI surveillance and how such information should be used.…”

Infection prevention requires attention to patient and caregiver language: Removing language barriers from infection prevention education

“…Patient and caregiver education are vital to the dissemination and implementation of infection prevention efforts; 1 however, research is limited regarding the contribution of language of care to healthcare-associated infection (HAI) risk or infection prevention implementation. As the infection prevention community addresses inequities within HAI, 2 barriers to care associated with patient language must be overcome to protect patients from preventable harm. Here, we detail examples of how language discordance between the healthcare system and patients and caregivers may increase HAI risk and then present strategies to overcome these challenges.…”

“…10 For example, an analysis of Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System data found that Asian and Hispanic–Latino patients admitted for cardiovascular disease, pneumonia, and surgery had higher rates of HAI than white, non-Hispanic–Latino patients admitted for the same indications. 11 The healthcare epidemiology community recognizes the importance of health equity in furthering HAI prevention efforts; 2 multilingual patient communication, education and infection prevention interventions are crucial considerations in reducing disparities in preventable infections.…”