210 ILCS 85/6.23: Prevention and control of Multidrug-Resistant Organisms.

(Text of Section before amendment by P.A. 104-508)

Each hospital shall develop and implement comprehensive interventions to prevent and control multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and certain gram-negative bacilli (GNB), that take into consideration guidelines of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the management of MDROs in healthcare settings. The Department shall adopt administrative rules that require hospitals to perform an annual facility-wide infection control risk assessment and enforce hand hygiene and contact precaution requirements.

(Text of Section after amendment by P.A. 104-508)

Prevention and control of pathogens of epidemiological concern.

(a) Each hospital shall develop and implement comprehensive interventions to prevent and control pathogens of epidemiological concern, that take into consideration guidelines of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or recommendations from (A) the Infectious Disease Society of America, (B) the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, (C) the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and (D) the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society for the management of multidrug-resistant organisms in health care settings. The Department may also consider any other credible scientific bodies or organizations in adopting rules and developing policies and findings in relation to the management of multidrug-resistant organisms in health care settings. The Department shall adopt administrative rules that require hospitals to perform an annual facility-wide infection control risk assessment and enforce hand hygiene and contact precaution requirements.

(b) Within 12 months after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 104th General Assembly, each hospital shall adopt a policy for preventing and controlling the transmission of pathogens of epidemiological concern that shall, at a minimum, contain:

(1) a facility risk assessment to identify pathogens of epidemiological concern that considers elements such as the probability of occurrence, as determined through surveillance, the potential impact of a pathogen, and measures the hospital has implemented to mitigate the risk to patients, health care workers, and visitors; and

(2) appropriate evidence-based procedures and intervention strategies to identify patients carrying pathogens of epidemiological concern and to help prevent patients from transmitting pathogens of epidemiological concern to other patients and health care workers.

(c) A hospital that has, through appropriate testing, identified a patient who has a pathogen of epidemiological concern shall report the patient to the United States Department of Health and Human Services or the National Healthcare Safety Network of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as required by the Department of Public Health or the United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.