Infectious Disease Special Edition (IDSE)New Abx Reporting Requirements Go Into Effect in 2024

Mandated CDC Reporting in Hospitals: Unveiling the Landscape of Antibiotic Use and Resistance

In a significant shift toward enhancing healthcare safety and antibiotic stewardship, the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) has introduced mandatory reporting requirements for antibiotic use and resistance. This initiative, encompassing almost all US hospitals, aims to provide comprehensive insights into antimicrobial medication practices, addressing a critical aspect of patient care and public health.

Key Points:

• Nationwide Reporting Mandate: Starting January 2024, the CDC’s NHSN requires critical access and acute care hospitals to report antibiotic use and resistance data, impacting nearly every hospital in the US.
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Involvement: This reporting is part of the CMS’s Promoting Interoperable Program, with substantial financial implications for participating hospitals.
• Exemptions and Compliance: Hospitals can be exempt from reporting if they have no patients, lack electronic pharmacy or laboratory records. Facilities must either engage with NHSN for data reporting or have a formal exclusion.
• NHSN’s Role and Reach: The NHSN is a critical national surveillance tool used by more than 38,000 healthcare facilities across the US and territories, providing a comprehensive database for medical event tracking.
• Preparing for Compliance: Hospitals not yet ready to meet the reporting requirements can register with NHSN and demonstrate their capability for future compliance.
• Preproduction Phase Limitation: Facilities have only one year to stay in the preproduction phase before they must start submitting required data.
• Data Submission Requirements: Hospitals must submit 180 days of continuous antibiotic use and resistance data, emphasizing the most crucial information for CDC’s analysis.
• Confidentiality Assurance: The CDC ensures confidentiality, stating that individual hospital data will not affect CMS reimbursements and will not be publicly disclosed in detail.
• Benchmarking and Stewardship Enhancement: More than 3,000 hospitals already report antibiotic use data, allowing for benchmarking and self-assessment to improve antibiotic stewardship.
• Customized Comparison and Analysis: The program enables hospitals to compare their antibiotic usage with similar institutions, helping in identifying unique trends and practices in specific care areas.

“If you don’t know whether your hospital participates in this program, the answer is probably yes. There are significant financial implications for participating in this program, so most hospitals do.”
– Capt. Arjun Srinivasan, MD, FSHEA, USPHS, a medical epidemiologists at the CDC

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