title: Enhancing patient safety by reducing healthcare-associated infections: the role of discovery and dissemination.
abstract: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) take a major human toll on society and reduce public confidence in the healthcare system. The current convergence of scientific, public, and legislative interest in reducing rates of HAI can provide the necessary momentum to address and answer important questions in HAI research. This position paper outlines priorities for a national approach to HAIs: scrutinizing the science base, developing a prioritized research agenda, conducting studies that address the questions that have been identified, creating and deploying guidelines that are based on the outcomes of these studies, and then initiating new studies that assess the efficacy of the interventions.
mesh_terms: D003428:Cross Infection / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000187:drug effects; D006090:Gram-Negative Bacteria; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission; D006287:Health Planning Guidelines; D006291:Health Policy; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus; D005791:Patient Care / Q000592:standards*; D012106:Research / Q000191:economics; D012449:Safety; D012952:Societies; D020713:Vancomycin Resistance