 chapters 1 5 the field of healthcare epidemiology has expanded tremendously and now encompasses an extensive network of stakeholders working collaboratively across healthcare settings government agencies and partner organizations to decrease healthcare associated infections hais and antimicrobial resistance ar the corha principles and practices for healthcare outbreak response is a comprehensive reference that covers key concepts and topics related to hai ar outbreak detection reporting investigation and control in its final form the principles and practices will consist of 8 chapters and 2 supplemental documents corha is excited to announce that the first 5 chapters are now available chapter 1 overview introduces some basic concepts and terms such as hai ar outbreak and response and provides an outline and guide to subsequent chapters chapter 2 fundamental concepts focuses on the background and basis for surveillance of healthcare associated infections hais and antimicrobial resistant ar pathogens as well as associated outbreak response activities chapter 3 planning and preparation discusses strategies that public health agencies and other partners can use to create a strong foundation for healthcare outbreak response topics include communications legal authorities escalation recovery and follow up as well as potential implementation of incident command systems chapter 4 outbreak detection and reporting examines the detection and reporting of potential outbreaks including detection via reports and through use of surveillance data definitions of sentinel cases clusters and outbreaks are described chapter 5 investigation and control reviews the goals of a healthcare outbreak investigation and includes collections of resources to support and improve the hai ar outbreak response the chapter is arranged to follow the steps typically involved in a healthcare outbreak investigation with the publication of its principles and practices for healthcare outbreak corha aims to equip public health healthcare and other stakeholders with a useful resource to build on and improve their healthcare outbreak response capacities and practices click here to learn more about additional resources and products developed by corha 