The New York State Department of Health (DOH) announced that it will exercise its enforcement discretion by not enforcing the New York State Hospital-Acquired Infection (HAI) program requirement for HAIs between January 1, 2020, through June 30, 2020. Hospitals need not report their HAI data for the New York State HAI program for HAIs observed January 1, 2020, through June 30, 2020. This aligns with last month’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announcement that reporting of the same data would be voluntary for hospitals.
DOH also announced that hospital-specific HAI rates for this time period will not be included in the annual New York State HAI report, even if hospitals choose to report the data to the National Health Safety Network registry. All hospitals, however, are still required to report outbreaks and/or diseases in accordance with New York State Public Health Law, which includes outbreaks or an increased incidence of any hospital-associated infections.
GNYHA is grateful for DOH’s decision to align with CMS and for today’s announcement.