Pressing Fast Forward on Patient Safety: CDC Announces $26 million for Prevention Epicenters

Pressing Fast Forward on Patient Safety: CDC Announces $26 million for Prevention Epicenters

CDC has awarded $26 million to support applied research at five academic medical centers as part of a patient safety effort known as Prevention Epicenters Program. Together with CDC, these Prevention Epicenters develop and test innovative approaches to preventing infections and improving patient safety in healthcare settings. The new funding more than doubles previous awards and expands and extends the Prevention Epicenters program to 2020. 

Prevention Epicenters funded from 2016 to 2020:

• Chicago Prevention and Intervention Epicenter at Rush University Medical Center and Cook County Health and Hospitals System
• Duke University and the University of North Carolina
• The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and University of California, Irvine
• The University of Pennsylvania
• Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and BJC Healthcare

“For nearly two decades, the Epicenters have advanced the fight against healthcare-associated infections with practical clinical innovations that have saved lives,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Antibiotic-resistant infections are on the rise, making this research even more critical today than ever.”

To learn more: http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/epiCenters/about.html

Also, today, on CDC’s Safe Healthcare Blog, Epicenter Principal Investigators Drs. Mary Hayden and William Trick discuss how their organizations are accelerating practical patient safety and antibiotic resistance research. From studying the best way to clean patients’ skin to figuring out how gut bacteria affect a patient’s risk of getting a drug-resistant infection – the Chicago Prevention and Intervention Epicenter is helping drive patient safety and transform patient care.

Join the conversation! Read the full blog at http://blogs.cdc.gov/safehealthcare/?p=5482