Arbor Research Collaborative for Health Awarded $1.2 Million Contract from CDC to Help Nursing Homes Use Electronic Health Records to Report Healthcare Acquired Infections

Arbor Research will work closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network to evaluate the ability of electronic health record (EHR) vendors to successfully implement and disseminate a standardized system for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) reporting into their EHR system, and assess the concordance of EHR versus manual-based reporting of CDIs by nursing homes.

Arbor Research Collaborative for Health, a non-profit company focused on conducting health outcomes research, announced the award of a $1.2 Million fixed price contract from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are associated with high morbidity and mortality for the more than 1 million persons residing in long-term care facilities (LTCFs), with the CDC having a long-standing commitment for monitoring and reducing HAIs in LTCF residents. Arbor Research will support the National Healthcare Safety Network’s (NHSN) LTCF Component HAI Program through this important step of assessing how well Clostridioides difficile infections, an HAI of public health importance, can be captured in a standardized fashion by EHR systems used by nursing homes across all 10 US Health and Human Services regions. 

“Arbor Research continues to expand our work in infectious disease and is looking forward to applying our combined research, policy, and clinical expertise to study the long-term care area, including nursing homes”, says Dr. Christopher Spera, President and CEO of Arbor Research Collaborative for Health.

The Lantana Consulting Group, a company with considerable expertise in developing electronic HAI reporting standards based on Clinical Document Architecture and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources will serve as subcontractor for Arbor Research for this study.  

“We greatly cherish this opportunity to support the CDC NHSN’s goal to easily, efficiently, and reliably capture HAI-related data for nursing home residents. This will ultimately help reduce reporting burdens for nursing home staff and help facilitate the NHSN’s objective to reduce the incidence of HAIs with the goal of improving health outcomes and quality of life for older adults in long-term care facilities”, says Dr. Ronald Pisoni, Principal Investigator for this study and Distinguished Research Scientist at Arbor Research.