HICPAC 101: CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Overview

Many infection preventionists regularly utilize clinical guidelines to guide their daily practice, but have you ever wondered how these national guidelines are developed? Many of the policies and practices that are used in infection prevention and control are developed by multidisciplinary groups whom create evidence-based guidelines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion is primarily responsible for authoring evidence-based guidelines and guidance documents specifically to assist healthcare facilities and providers in reducing Healthcare-Care Associated Infections (HAIs). To aid the CDC in developing evidence-based guidance to the healthcare community, CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) maintain the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), which is a group of federally appointed healthcare experts who are charged with providing the CDC staff with strategic guidance on a wide variety of infection prevention and control challenges across the healthcare continuum of care. In addition to the voting members of the committee, there are also representatives from 21 clinical organizations which do not hold voting power. A senior member of CDC’s staff, the Designated Federal Official, serves as the official committee Secretary and official government representative to the group. This committee provides input not only to the CDC, but also to HHS. HICPAC is an extremely influential body that has tremendous impacts on the infection prevention and control community through the release of guidelines, guidance documents, and position statements that are viewed as the gold standard for both clinical practice as well as liability. These documents and recommendations are used widely in the infection prevention field and serve as the basis for many policies and procedures used in both inpatient and outpatient healthcare facilities.

As an infection preventionist, it’s critical to closely monitor the ongoing work that is being performed by HICPAC. Most HICPAC documents are sent out for official public comment prior to being finalized by the committee, and all healthcare professionals are encouraged to submit written comments along with supporting evidence. Engaging in this guideline creation and review process is a core responsibility of every infection prevention professional.

HICPAC typically meets 3–4 times per year formally, but members of the committee regularly interact through working group meetings. The in-person meetings are hosted at the CDC Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia and the meetings are open to the public. All infection preventionists should attempt to participate in HICPAC meetings remotely by registering for the webcast of the event. Space is limited for the webcast, so it is imperative to register early to secure your reservation for each meeting. All of the HICPAC presentations as well as minutes are published on the HICPAC website within ninety days of the meeting concluding.  The many documents produced by HICPAC are routinely used by other regulatory and accreditation agencies to define standards of care and for documentation of compliance of the current CDC recommendations.

To learn more about HICPAC or to register for upcoming meetings, click here. To view the current CDC HICPAC Guidelines and Guidance documents, click here.

Dr. Hudson Garrett Jr. is a paid consultant for Clorox Healthcare.