Providers urged to print, save certain NHSN data before Jan. 31

Hospitals and other facilities that have already submitted 2014 patient safety and long-term care data to the National Healthcare Safety Network should print their completed surveys before the network is updated on Jan. 31 and re-enter the data after Feb. 2, according to a network notice. They also should not enter 2015 data before Feb. 2 because 2015 protocols and business rules will be incorporated into the application once NHSN is updated. “If you have already entered 2015 events, those events may be moved to the ‘Incomplete Events’ list generating an alert on your home screen,” the notice states. “You will need to review and finalize those event records according to the new 2015 NHSN protocols and business rules.” According to the notice, hospitals that have reported ventilator-associated pneumonia data for adult locations in the past and wish to maintain comparisons to the 2012 pooled means also should save an exported electronic copy of their VAP rate table output prior to Jan. 31.