In a May 28 message to health system CEOs, two national healthcare safety organizations compared cutting infection control jobs to “dismantling the fire department during wildfire season.”
The Leapfrog Group and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology said reports of staffing and resource reductions in infection prevention “jeopardize the very foundation of safe care.”
“The current healthcare landscape — marked by high levels of preventable patient harm, emerging infectious threats, workforce shortages and increasing complexity of care — demands that patient safety top the priority list of every health system CEO and board,” the organizations said in a joint statement.
They called on hospital CEOs, board members and policymakers to treat infection prevention as a strategic imperative, not just a regulatory obligation or budget line item.
The groups also pointed to Leapfrog’s spring 2025 Hospital Safety Grade data, which showed a continued decline in healthcare-associated infections — a trend they attributed to ongoing investment in infection prevention efforts.
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