AHRQ awards $34M to expand fight against healthcare-associated infections

The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has announced awards totaling $34 million for projects focused on preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), in an effort to improve the quality of care delivered to patients.

These awards are a part of a department-wide effort to address HAIs. Funded projects will contribute to implementing the strategies outlined in the HHS Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections.

With this new funding, researchers will be able to learn why infections occur and find ways to prevent them from happening, improve antibiotic prescribing practices and delivery and enhance communication and teamwork among healthcare providers, AHRQ stated.

A complete list of institutions and projects funded in fiscal year 2010 under this announcement is available here.

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