CDC Seeks Changes to National Healthcare Safety Network

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is requesting Office of Management and Budget approval to make several reporting changes to the National Healthcare Safety Network, to which providers voluntarily report information.

The request, with a public comment period, is detailed in a notice published November 30 and available here. The changes include:

* Updating assurance of confidentiality language;

* Expanding dialysis surveillance among outpatient dialysis centers;

* Expanding the patient safety component to include long-term care facilities in healthcare-associated infection surveillance;

* Adding a new form to facilitate summary reporting of influenza vaccination in health care workers; and

* Transitioning the antimicrobial use and resistance module from manual Web entry to electronic data upload to reduce the reporting burden.

Overall, CDC is seeking to delete four current forms and add five new ones. The agency expects the changes to reduce the total reporting burden by 1.26 million hours, to a total estimated burden of 3.9 million hours.