Your Zip Code Shouldn't Determine Your Infection Risk: Identifying Community-Based Opportunities

Session Description: Understanding infection risk requires looking beyond the hospital walls. This session will explore how an academic medical center leveraged Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to visualize infection data by ZIP code and layered it with community-level social determinants of health (SDOH) to identify hotspots, target resources, and support population-level infection prevention.

By integrating hospital-onset infection data with public SDOH datasets such as income, housing density, vaccination rates, and access to healthcare, the infection prevention (IP) team developed heat maps to illustrate geographic disparities in infection trends and better anticipate community-driven risks. These tools were used to inform internal outreach strategies, including patient discharge planning, outpatient follow-up, and community education campaigns.

Additionally, the mapping tool supported collaboration with public health entities to align regional responses and helped justify targeted resource allocation for high-risk populations.

This session will offer a practical roadmap for how infection preventionists can use publicly available data, basic GIS platforms, and institutional infection data to drive equity-focused interventions, improve outcomes, and strengthen community partnerships.

Christie Pinto

Director of Quality, Patient Safety, & Infection Prevention, Memorial Hermann Health System

Christie Pinto, MBA, BSN, RN, CPHQ, CPPS is the Director of Quality, Patient Safety, & Infection Prevention at Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center. She received her undergraduate nursing degree from UTA and her MBA from SUNY Oswego. She is currently enrolled in the DNP program at The University of Texas at Tyler. She’s passionate about teamwork and believes that data integration and analytics into process improvement strategies is essential to reduce patient safety events and ultimately improve the overall quality of care.

Zehra Jaffari

Infection Preventionist, Memorial Hermann Health System

Zehra Jaffari, MPH, CIC, is an Infection Preventionist in Houston at Memorial Hermann Health System in the Texas Medical Center. With a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston: School of Public Health, Zehra's foundational knowledge spans environmental health, health disparities, and infectious disease epidemiology. Her passion lies in deciphering disease trends and discerning data patterns to mitigate adverse events and elevate health outcomes. Beyond her professional pursuits, Zehra enjoys exploring new destinations, embarking on hiking adventures, experimenting in the kitchen, and spending time outdoors.

Christina Cashatt

Infection Preventionist, NE ICAP/NE Medicine

I am a Certified in Infection Control (CIC) professional with over ten years of experience in infection prevention, program coordination, digital resource management, and community outreach. I currently work at Nebraska ICAP, a grant-funded, nonprofit organization supporting evidence-based infection prevention across healthcare and community settings. Previously, I served on a two-person infection prevention team at CHI CUMC–Bergan, overseeing a 300-bed academic medical center and multiple outpatient clinics, with responsibilities spanning regulatory compliance, collaboration, and program oversight. I have also held leadership roles as Past President of APIC Nebraska and as a member of APIC National’s Member Engagement Committee, contributing to statewide and national initiatives. My work includes coordinating the NICN Infection Prevention in School Settings conference, contributing to the NICE Book and Kids Health Zone newsletters, and managing web-based tools for NE ICAP’s school and dialysis programs, with a focus on accuracy, accessibility, and user engagement.