 the biden harris administration and cdc recently announced a $2 1 billion investment as part of the american rescue plan arp to improve infection prevention and control activities across the u s public health and healthcare sectors health departments received $885 million of this total in late october 2021 to support this work corha interviewed dr joe perz our lead representative from cdc and a governance committee member to learn more about the funding what is the new funding weve been hearing about the initial funding is divided between two projects that are managed under a cdc cooperative agreement with health departments one of these is the nursing home long term care facility strike team and infrastructure project which totals $500 million the other is the strengthening hai ar program sharp capacity project which totals $385 million how is healthcare outbreak response reflected in the new funding healthcare outbreak response is clearly recognized as a core function and essential need in both new funding opportunities which cover the response continuum beginning with outbreak detection and extending to on site investigation as well as longer term follow up activities to prevent a recurrence can you unpack that a bit in relation to the nursing home long term care project sure the ltc project guidance includes a directive to support nursing homes and other types of long term care facilities with covid 19 outbreak response thats the primary motivation and the funding can be used to support the rapid reactive activities like testing cohorting infection control auditing and even supplemental staffing when sars cov 2 has entered a facility and transmission is ramping up the allowable activities also support more proactive measures like helping equip facilities with technology for infection tracking and reporting or communication with health department partners in addition we are supportive of creative approaches for staff recruitment development and retention the overall aim here is to build infection prevention infrastructure and achieve a greater quality of care in other words greater resilience to sars cov 2 and outbreaks more generally susceptibility to the rapid spread of infections is something that nursing homes really must guard against given the congregate and residential nature of long term care and what about the sharp project same spirit spread farther the sharp funds are intended to enhance health department hai ar healthcare associated infections antimicrobial resistance program activities across all healthcare settings not limited to long term care the sharp project guidance reflects the central challenge that corha was originally founded on which was the need to build capacity for public health and healthcare to improve outbreak detection response and prevention this requires close collaboration and relationship building between public health professionals and healthcare providers which has been growing steadily but could really blossom now with these arp supported investments outbreak detection should improve thanks to sharp activities related to both the ar lab network and national healthcare safety network nhsn these will enhance surveillance for drug resistant pathogens and hais providing data for action likewise outbreak investigation should benefit from additional staffing and increased engagement with healthcare partners sharp encourages health departments to build hai ar prevention and response capacity throughout their jurisdictions such as expanded use of local and regional approaches to address hai ar threats and controlling the spread of resistant pathogens the guidance describes requirements for funded hai ar programs to establish a lead position to coordinate and oversee hai response activities and to train staff in outbreak response advice for corha and its member organizations yes lets lean into this opportunity corha is identified as a key source for healthcare outbreak training resources it would be great to see increased activities in that realm including collaboration with corhas member organizations to improve and expand our collective offerings both of the new projects emphasize direct engagement with individual facilities the sharp project references activities such as medical product investigations targeted ar threats molecular testing methods patient notification and many other aspects of healthcare outbreak response these all represent opportunities for corhas workgroups and member organizations to take our work to the next level joseph perz 