Resilience: Empowering Infection Preventionists to Prepare for Disruptions Using Systems-based Approaches

Session Description: Healthcare systems are complex environments facing challenges that strain their capabilities, including emerging infections, seasonal surges of respiratory diseases, natural disasters, and evolving demographics of both the healthcare workforce and patient populations. Healthcare systems resilience (HSR) can be described as the ability to prevent and prepare for; absorb and adapt to; and recover and learn from these types of expected and unexpected crises, shocks, and other stressors. To protect patients and healthcare workers during times of system disruptions, infection preventionists (IPs) are well positioned to apply HSR concepts and strategies when assessing risks to maintaining safe, quality care, including prevention of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance. These approaches bring together considerations from resilience engineering, high reliability organizations, data modernization, and human factors engineering and ergonomics. This session will provide timely perspectives, evidence, and practical resources from organizations supporting health systems. Findings and lessons learned will be shared from national focus groups convening hospital and health system leaders to address current HSR topics and themes. These included how to use data for decision making during times of system disruptions, practical strategies for building organizational resilience, and opportunities for support from healthcare system partners. After establishing a foundational understanding of HSR, the question-and-answer segment of the session will provide a structured, interactive forum for IPs and other attendees to voice their experiences with successes and challenges promoting resilience during times of stress within their healthcare systems. Focus will be given to assessment tools and other resources for IPs to use systems-based approaches that improve anticipation of, response to, and recovery from disruptions.

Matthew Stuckey

Epidemiologist, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dr. Matthew Stuckey is the lead of the Healthcare Systems Resilience Team in CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. He is an epidemiologist by training, receiving his PhD and MPH from the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Stuckey is a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Public Health Service, and since joining DHQP as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer in 2016, he has contributed to infection prevention and control efforts in healthcare settings, with experience ranging from water-associated pathogens, Ebola, and COVID-19.

Elisa Arespacochaga

Group Vice President, Clinical Affairs and Workforce, American Hospital Association

Elisa Arespacochaga is group vice president, clinical affairs and workforce at the American Hospital Association. In her role, Elisa supports the workforce strategy efforts of the association, focused on strengthening the current health care workforce and planning for the workforce needed for the future. As part of this work, she also leads efforts to support behavioral health, reduce violence in hospitals, support trustee leaders and advancing physician leadership across the hospital and health system enterprise.