1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

I want you to know about HHS’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC). By federal law you authorized the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish this committee. Their funding only ever covers 2 years. They have saved countless lives by defining infection control practices to make sure that patients in hospitals with inline tubes and catheters are safe. They have issued guidance for dialysis centers, dental offices, ambulatory surgery centers, and nursing homes. They even helped standardize infection data definitions used in public reporting and quality benchmarking. This is a small and important powerhouse and they develop guidance to keep patients safe in the hospital. There is a move to cut this office because they also made important COVID health recommendations and many want to forget the past and punish those who worked to save our lives during the pandemic. I very strongly urge you to contact the Secretary of Health and Human Services and tell him you expect HICPAC to continue its important work and nut be subject to cuts. Then I want you to make sure that they have the money in place, by lay and by name to continue their work protecting all of us. Thank you.