HHS and CCSC National Awards Program:
Achievements in Eliminating Healthcare-Associated Infections

In 2011 the CCSC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a national awards program to motivate the healthcare community to achieve wide-scale reduction of healthcare-associated infections. Criteria is tied to national standards as outlined in the HHS Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections. The initial year of the program saw a tremendous response from the critical care community and awards will be distributed at each of the four societies annual clinical meetings. The first awards were presented in May of 2011 by Don Wright, M.D., M.P.H., Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health for Healthcare Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program is ongoing.