Washington Update                       October 15, 2003

Dear Chapter Legislative Representatives:
The following is a brief synopsis of our most recent public policy activities. If you have any questions in follow up or would like to request any documents that are mentioned but do not include a link to our Web site, please email me at jthomas@apic.org

The Public Policy Team continues to work with the APIC Practice Guidance Team as well as the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the American Society for Healthcare Engineers (ASHE), in shaping policy regarding the placement of hand sanitizers in the health care setting. Loretta Fauerbach, Practice Guidance Team leader attended a meeting at the AHA in Washington, DC on this subject. Recent guidance, resulting from this meeting and collaboration is posted on the APIC Web site at https://www.apic.org/resc/guidlist.cfm.

APIC continued its lobbying efforts in support of funding for bioterrorism preparedness -- not only for strengthening public health infrastructure and response capabilities, but also for facility-level preparedness efforts.

We also continued our work with Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA) regarding APIC�s involvement with the First Responder market.  We drafted a letter for Congressman Weldon to send to Tom Ridge, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, recommending APIC to the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium. The Consortium is the principal vehicle through which the Office of Domestic Preparedness identifies, develops, tests and delivers training to state and local emergency responders.

APIC submitted formal written comment to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to the agency�s reopening of the administrative record of the Tentative Final Monograph for Health-Care Antiseptic Drug Products (1994 TFM). The 1994 TFM represents the most current regulatory guidance for over-the-counter topical antimicrobial products.  If promulgated in its current form into a Final Monograph, the results would have a major impact on the cost, availability, and performance of current and future topical antimicrobial products available for use in healthcare. 

Public Policy Team Chair, Sue Sebazco, attended the CDC & SARS Preparedness Meeting in Decatur, GA, on August 12-13 as APIC�s representative. To obtain the most recent recommendations from the CDC on addressing SARS, go to https://www.apic.org/resc/guidlist.cfm.

On September 23, Rachel Stricof represented APIC at the meeting of the Secretary's Council on Public Health Preparedness. APIC's oral statement focused on the role of infection control in bioterrorism and emerging threat response efforts, as well as the ongoing and often overwhelming everyday responsibilities of ICPs in the health care setting.

Thanks for passing this information along to your Chapter members.
 Sincerely,
Jennifer Thomas Barrows
Director of Public Policy