SHEA Issues Statement Urging CDC to Reinstate Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee

SHEA has issued a statement urging the CDC to consider reinstating the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC).

SHEA writes that HICPAC “provides evidence-based guidance that directly informs federal healthcare standards and protects both patients and healthcare workers across hospitals, outpatient clinics, and extended care facilities. HICPAC’s recommendations are the basis for healthcare practices that facilities use daily to keep people safe from complications from healthcare-associated infections (including disinfection and sterilization practices for patient care instruments and equipment, isolation precautions for infectious diseases both confirmed and suspected, and disease-specific care and guidance recommendations).”

They also write that terminating HICPAC “reates a preventable gap in national preparedness and response capacity, leaving healthcare facilities without timely, evidence-based and expert-driven recommendations at a time when threats from emerging pathogens and antimicrobial resistance are on the rise. The committee’s interdisciplinary composition—drawing on expertise in epidemiology, infectious disease, infection prevention, hospital administration, occupational health, and patient advocacy —ensures that its guidance is scientifically rigorous and operationally practical. Disbanding HICPAC jeopardizes decades of progress in preventing healthcare-associated infections.”

HICPAC’s depth of review of scientific evidence “result[s] in guidelines widely accepted as the standard of care by healthcare accrediting organizations and CMS. The absence of this committee’s guidance creates a significant void in the field, fosters uncertainty among healthcare facilities, and put patients at risk.” SHEA calls on CDC “through HHS to reinstate HICPAC to preserve a resilient, coordinated, and science-driven public health infrastructure.”