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Building Healthcare Capacity: The SHEA APIC Communications Network
(updated 4/2/08, reviewed 11/08)
About Us
Through the "Building Healthcare Capacity in the U.S. and
Internationally" cooperative agreement supported by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Healthcare Quality
Promotion (DHQP) (and more recently CDC contract 200-2008-M-24222) , the
SHEA/APIC Communication Network consists of more than 1,600 members of
the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
(APIC) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA)
from 50 states, U.S. territories, Canada and several foreign
countries (based on activities thru late 2007 1607 members from
approximately 1587 facilities). These members provide a network for the
distribution and collection of routine and emergency information (click
here for a map of the U.S. members by region).
The challenges posed by events such as influenza vaccine shortages in
recent years and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina highlight
the need for rapid response related to infection prevention and control
during large scale emergencies. The Communication Network provides a
platform for two-way communication for distributing timely information
and guidelines and for receiving real-time information on the
situational status in health care facilities. Nearly half of the
network members have more than ten years of experience in infection
prevention and control and healthcare epidemiology. They are key players
in responding to medical and public health emergencies in health care
facilities. APIC and SHEA plan to continue to nurture this Network
as a way to distribute timely information, and take a "pulse" on the
status of issues in emergency times, and also to explore opinions and
identify practices on topical infection prevention and control issues in
non-emergent times.
Activities pursued by the SHEA/APIC Communication Network since
September 2005 include surveys (link to previous survey page) exploring topics of
concern in infection prevention and control and healthcare
epidemiology, such as practices for avian influenza/pandemic flu
preparedness and healthcare facility capacity to care for mumps patients
during a large-scale outbreak. A Network priority in 2005 was
to identify problems in hospitals following Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita. In 2007 surveys on Influenza and newer Joint Commission
standards and multidrug resistant organisms allowed for exploring topics
of great interest to members and explore new technical advances
including electronic survey entry and disseminating results via these
Network webpages (link
to current survey page). A priority in 2006 and
2007 was to form liaisons with other professional organizations,
networks, and states and local health departments that are involved in
emergency response relating to infectious diseases. (link to activities page).
The Network held several activities at the 2006 and 2007 SHEA and
APIC Annual Meetings, including small group discussions, information
sessions, and a formal poster presentation of Network activities.
(link to activities page; link to presentations). Including activities
and surveys conducted since September 2005, over 2,400 SHEA and APIC
members have responded to our efforts at least one time (click here for a map of participants by
region).
This project had been supported under a cooperative
agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, grant
number U90/CCU324330-01 and recently by CDC Contract 200-2008-M-28222.
Publications and report contents, including this website, are solely the
responsibility of the authors/Network and do not necessarily represent
the official views of the CDC.
This Website
Via our surveys and recent activities, such as those at the 2006 and
2007 SHEA and APIC Annual Meetings, including focus group
discussions, informational sessions and presentations, we have heard
many constructive comments from Network, APIC and SHEA Members.
This website will allow us to share past and current results and future
plans with our members in a real-time fashion. Since piloted
12/21/06 thru late 2007 the Network webpages have had at least
4480 visits. Please contact us with suggestions and comments (commnetwork@apic.org).
Thank you for taking the time to visit our website.
To Join
Are you an infection prevention and control or healthcare
epidemiology professional and wish to join our efforts? (link to electronic sign up sheet,link to sign up
sheet to print to fax or e-mail )
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