Laws

In 2004, the Missouri legislature passed Senate Bill 1279, which establishes the "Missouri Nosocomial Infection Reporting Act of 2004". The purpose of the act is to decrease the incidence of infections within health care facilities in Missouri and requires hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers to report specific health care-associated infections to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The legislation repealed and revised several sections of Chapter 192 RSMo and Chapter 197 RSMo. The revised statute and section that specifically addresses the public reporting of the infection data is 192.667.

Regulations

19 CSR 10-33.050 (Scroll down to page 35) is the rule that establishes procedures for the phased-in reporting of health care-associated infections (HAIs). The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Missouri Hospital Association (MHA), and an advisory panel representing consumers, physicians, infection control practitioners, a medical statistician, microbiologist and three employees of the Department of Health and Senior Services, to develop standards for the collection, analysis and reporting of data for specific types of HAIs.