Survey Instructions Invite

Invitation for Nursing Homes to Complete a Brief Voluntary Survey to Help Reduce the Burden of Reporting Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC), National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)

The enclosed survey questions relate to clinical documentation regarding healthcare associated infections, receipt of laboratory results for such infections, and other related processes. A person with knowledge about these processes should be chosen to answer the survey questions. Please consider having the enclosed survey completed by the person whom you feel is best equipped to answer such questions about your facility.

The ideal person to complete this survey is the Infection Preventionist or individual primarily responsible for monitoring infections.

Arbor Research Collaborative for Health (Arbor Research), a non-profit company focused on conducting health outcomes research, is under contract with the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) to pilot test methods to receive Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) data more easily and efficiently from nursing homes through electronic health record (EHR) systems. The goal of this work is to reduce HAI reporting burdens for nursing home staff at facilities that submit HAI data to NHSN and help advance NHSN’s objective to collect actionable data to identify and respond to emerging and enduring infection threats for nursing home residents. Facilities may still complete the survey if they do not currently report HAIs into the NHSN Long Term Care Component Module.

As part of this effort, Arbor Research is sending a voluntary survey, found within this envelope, to several randomly selected nursing homes in the US. To simplify pilot testing, the CDC NHSN team is focusing on the identification and reporting of Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) infections using an EHR . This survey will be used to obtain feedback from nursing homes regarding specific experiences, such as the availability of data, ease of entry of data within your Electronic Health Record system, level of encouragement from administrators to track and report data, barriers and challenges to reporting into established systems, and overall work burden related to the identification and monitoring of Clostridioides difficile infections among residents.

If you wish to participate by completing this voluntary survey – please review the Confidential Information and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sections on the backside of this letter and return the survey using the pre-addressed and stamped envelope provided in this package or the survey may be completed using this link <survey link to be added>. Notably, all responses from nursing homes will be maintained in a highly confidential manner, and identities of the respondent and the nursing home they represent will not be provided to the CDC or to anyone outside of Arbor Research Collaborative for Health. A summary of survey responses, aggregated across participating nursing homes, will be provided to the CDC. Individual nursing homes and respondents will not be identifiable. We estimate that it will take respondents up to 10-20 minutes to complete the survey.

Thank you very much for your consideration of this invitation. Your participation in this survey could improve the experience of nursing homes reporting to NHSN.

Sincerely,

Ronald L. Pisoni, PhD, MS Project Director Distinguished Research Scientist Arbor Research Collaborative for Health

Eric Lammers, PhD Research Scientist Health Economics/Health Services Research Arbor Research Collaborative for Health

Confidential Information

Collection of this survey by CDC and its contractor is authorized by Section 306 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.242k). Information contained on this form which would permit identification of any individual or establishment is being collected with a guarantee that it will be held in strict confidence by the contractor and CDC, will be used only for purposes stated in this project, and will not be disclosed or released to anyone other than authorized staff of CDC without the consent of the individual or the establishment in accordance with Section 308(d) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.242m). No information collected under the authority of Section 306 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 242k) may be used for any purpose other than the purpose for which it was supplied, and such information may not be published or released in other form if the particular individual or establishment supplying the information or described in it is identifiable to anyone other than authorized staff of CDC, unless the individual or establishment has consented to such release. Voluntary disclosure by the respondent of requested information after being informed of the preceding information is an acknowledgment of the uses and disclosures contained within this paragraph.

FAQs

How will the results of this survey be used?

The results of this survey will inform Arbor Research and the CDC-NHSN team of the experience of nursing homes with recording and reporting of C. diff infections helping to guide how changes to EHR systems can better support reporting of infection data to the NHSN. The results will be used solely for epidemiological or statistical research and reporting purposes.

Are there any penalties for declining to complete the survey?

No, there are no penalties for declining to complete the survey, participation is completely voluntary.

How long will completion of the survey take?

We estimate that it will take respondents up to 10-20 minutes to complete the survey.

How do I return the survey?

You can complete the survey and send it back using the pre-addressed and stamped envelope provided in this package or the survey may be completed using this link <survey link to be added>.

Who do I reach out to with questions?

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Arbor Research by email at [email protected].

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