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CMS revises interpretive guidelines for infection control regulations

Infection Control Monitor, December 7, 2007

While the regulations themselves haven't changed, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued revised interpretive guidelines for the hospital regulations for infection control.

In a November 21 letter to state survey agency directors, CMS announced the revisions to the interpretive guidelines, which are effective immediately. "Changing infectious disease threats, as well as new mechanisms to confront these threats, have emerged in recent years. As a result, it is necessary to update these guidelines to better reflect current conditions within hospitals as well as contemporary infection control standards of practice," CMS said. For example, the new guidelines speak to special challenges in infection control that include MDROs, ambulatory care settings, communicable disease outbreaks, and bioterrorism.

The interpretive guidelines discuss the requirements for the infection control Conditions of Participation, as well as the procedures for surveyors to use to determine hospital compliance. The guidelines also contain discussion and examples of practices that hospitals are encouraged to adopt, but which are not necessarily required by regulation, CMS said.

To read the CMS letter, click here. To read the revised interpretive guideline, click here.

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