CDC Awards $375,000 Contract to Columbia University School of Nursing to Study Infection Surveillance and Reporting in Nursing Homes

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have awarded a one-year, $375,000 contract to the Columbia University School of Nursing. Under the leadership of Patricia Stone, PhD, Centennial Professor of Health Policy at Columbia, a research team will conduct a study on barriers to reporting of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) and multidrug-resistant organisms in nursing homes, and the resources needed to overcome these barriers.

Columbia’s study is one of 34 studies being funded by the CDC as part of a $14 million effort called the Antibiotic Resistance Solutions Initiative to address a growing problem of antibiotic resistance nationwide. Nursing homes are supposed to report antibiotic resistant organisms to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), an internet-based infection tracking system created and managed by the CDC. However, according to Columbia Nursing, only 1.9 percent of the 15,700 nursing homes in the nation were enrolled in the NHSN as of March 2016.

Stone’s research team will also include co-Investigator Carolyn Herzig, PhD, associate research scientist at Columbia Nursing, and a RAND Corporation team led by Andy Dick, PhD. The CDC believes that antibiotics are life-saving medicines, but the spread of antibiotic resistance is threatening their effectiveness in the future. Columbia Nursing’s research could produce new prevention strategies to better combat antibiotic resistance by helping to identify previously under-recognized routes of transmission between patients.

According to Stone, Columbia’s study of identification and reporting of infections in nursing homes is the first step in finding more effective ways to prevent and reduce infection. Results of the study could ultimately improve nursing home resident quality of life and reduce the cost of care, greatly contributing to the CDC’s efforts to address antibiotic resistance.