HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Thursday, July 30, provided the down payment for a nationwide effort to reduce health care associated infections in stand-alone or same-day surgical centers. The first effort will begin later this month in 12 states under provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

“Keeping patients healthy is one of the requirements of the Recovery Act, and the first 12 states that have volunteered to focus attention on these surgical centers are taking a giant step in helping to reduce infections that affect millions of patients every year,” said Secretary Sebelius. “CMS’s efforts with states to reduce the number of infections quickly are just one part of protecting the health of the nation’s health care system.”

Increasingly, health care delivery is being shifted to outpatient settings such as ambulatory care facilities, long term care facilities, and free standing specialty care sites. The number of ambulatory surgical centers has grown dramatically and continues to increase. ASCs account for 43 percent of all same-day surgery in the United States, amounting to about 15 million procedures every year.

Read more about HHS' action plan to prevent health care associated infections here.