The relationship of public health to the infection preventionists in United States hospitals, 2011: a partnership for change.

To gain a better understanding of the relationship between state and local health departments and the hospital-based infection prevention community, including the potential impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funding on those relationships, a survey was developed by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and distributed in 2011. This report describes the survey findings and presents an initial assessment of factors identified by infection preventionists as the most important in developing an effective relationship with health departments. Opportunities for improvement are also described. This preliminary analysis provides an initial baseline for further investigation to clarify the optimum approaches for ongoing collaboration.