SHEA Guidelines and Expert Guidance Documents

Two guides for patients, caregivers, and visitors. These guides were based on the SHEA/IDSA/APIC Compendium and developed with the 2024 SHEA Guidelines Committee. The guides provide:

*Information about proper hand hygiene, vaccines, and the use of antibiotics
*Common symptoms and how to recognize and prevent bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, C. difficile infections, MRSA infections, and surgical site infections
*Prompts that encourage participation in preventing infections and staying safe in the hospital.

PATIENT GUIDES:

Digital flipbooks (available at no cost):
*Guide to Being a Safe Patient or Caregiver
*Guide to Being a Safe Visitor

Printed versions, available through Guideline Central for individual and bulk orders:

* Guide to Being a Safe Patient or Caregiver
* Guide to Being a Safe Visitor

Update to the SHEA 2011 infection prevention guidance for pediatric residential facilities that refreshes the literature and recommendations for the topics covered in the 2011 document, as well as guidance for pediatric residential facilities’ staff related to infection prevention of COVID-19, multidrug-resistant organisms including C. auris, Mpox, and updates on standard precautions, respiratory hygiene, safe injection practices, vaccination, screening of visitors, and other IPC topics. The authors revised and expanded on the supportive materials for staff and for visitors, available with the manuscript under “Supplementary Material.”

Authors: Guzman-Cottrill JA, Blatt DB, Bryant KA, McGrath CL, Zerr DM, Rosenthal A, Kociolek LK, Murphy C, Ravin KA

https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2024.124

https://shea-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/SHEA-Choosing-Wisely-Updated-2024.pdf

This publication is part of a series whose purpose is to provide an overview of diagnostic stewardship. Here, we discuss the distinct and complementary relationship between diagnostic and antimicrobial stewardship and demonstrate how diagnostic stewardship interventions may complement ASPs.

https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2023.156

Previously published guidelines provided comprehensive recommendations for detecting and preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The intent of this document is to highlight practical recommendations in a concise format designed to assist acute-care hospitals to implement and prioritize their Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) prevention efforts. This document updates the Strategies to Prevent Clostridium difficile Infections in Acute Care Hospitals published in 2014. This expert guidance document is sponsored by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and is the product of a collaborative effort led by SHEA, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and The Joint Commission.

https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2023.18 

We provide an overview of diagnostic stewardship with key concepts that include the diagnostic pathway and the multiple points where interventions can be implemented, strategies for interventions, the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration, and key microbiologic diagnostic tests that should be considered for diagnostic stewardship. The document focuses on microbiologic laboratory testing for adult and pediatric patients and is intended for a target audience of healthcare workers involved in diagnostic stewardship interventions and all workers affected by any step of the diagnostic pathway (i.e., ordering, collecting, processing, reporting, and interpreting results of a diagnostic test).

https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2023.5

Authors: Tamar F. Barlam, Mayar Al Mohajer, Jaffar A. Al-Tawfiq, Antonie J. Auguste, Cheston B. Cunha, Graeme N. Forrest, Alan E. Gross, Rachael A. Lee, Susan K. Seo, Kathryn N. Suh, Stacy Volk
and Joshua K. Schaffzin

https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2022.194

The purpose of this document is to highlight practical recommendations to assist acute care hospitals to prioritize and implement strategies to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), ventilator-associated events (VAE), and non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (NV-HAP) in adults, children, and neonates. This document updates the Strategies to Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in Acute Care Hospitals published in 2014. This expert guidance document is sponsored by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology (SHEA), and is the product of a collaborative effort led by SHEA, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Hospital Association, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and The Joint Commission, with major contributions from representatives of a number of organizations and societies with content expertise.

https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2022.88

Previously published guidelines provide comprehensive recommendations for detecting and preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The intent of this document is to highlight practical recommendations in a concise format designed to assist acute-care hospitals in implementing and prioritizing their central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) prevention efforts. This document updates the Strategies to Prevent Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections in Acute-Care Hospitals published in 2014. This expert guidance document is sponsored by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). It is the product of a collaborative effort led by SHEA, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and The Joint Commission, with major contributions from representatives of a number of organizations and societies with content expertise.

https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2022.87

This consensus statement by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine (AMDA), the Association for Professionals in Epidemiology and Infection Control (APIC), the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA), the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS), and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP) recommends that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination should be a condition of employment for all healthcare personnel in facilities in the United States. Exemptions from this policy apply to those with medical contraindications to all COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States and other exemptions as specified by federal or state law. The consensus statement also supports COVID-19 vaccination of nonemployees functioning at a healthcare facility (eg, students, contract workers, volunteers, etc).

https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2021.322

This clinical practice guideline is a focused update on management of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) in adults specifically addressing the use of fidaxomicin and bezlotoxumab for the treatment of CDI. This guideline was developed by a multidisciplinary panel representing the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). This guideline is intended for use by healthcare professionals who care for adults with CDI, including specialists in infectious diseases, gastroenterologists, hospitalists, pharmacists, and any clinicians and healthcare providers caring for these patients. The panel’s recommendations for the management CDI are based upon evidence derived from topic-specific systematic literature reviews. Summarized below are the recommendations for the management of CDI in adults. The panel followed a systematic process which included a standardized methodology for rating the certainty of the evidence and strength of recommendation using the GRADE approach (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation). A detailed description of background, methods, evidence summary and rationale that support each recommendation, and knowledge gaps can be found online in the full text.

https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab549

This intersociety position statement addresses the issue of disinfection of transcutaneous ultrasound transducers used for percutaneous procedures or for monitoring other invasive procedures. Some organizations are not congruent in their recommendations for disinfection, with recommendations for high-level disinfection of sheathed probes for percutaneous procedures being not evidence-based and resulting in unwarranted and unnecessary use of resources, increase the possibility of safety events if procedures are performed without ultrasound guidance. This statement addresses several specific points for determining when to use high-level disinfection appropriately.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jum.15653