Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Healthcare Workers Action Plan

February 2008

NIOSH Docket Number 129

NIOSH announced the opportunity for the public to comment on a draft action plan document, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Healthcare Workers (HCW). The document provides a roadmap on how NIOSH/ National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) propose to address the lack of preparedness regarding effective PPE for use in an influenza pandemic. The comments and information submitted to the docket will be considered in developing the next version of this document. The draft action plan document and comments on it are available below.

The PPE for HCW Action plan has been updated to be consistent with the formatting provided in the PPT Program Implementation Plan to Address the NA Recommendations docket #146. A summary document is provided for readability, with the detail previously posted, preserved as Appendix A. No content modifications have been added since the August 2008 version of Appendix A, only minor editorial changes are incorporated. Appendix B provides a summary of an ongoing project for which other information is not available on the PPT Program website. Appendix C provides the PPT Program response to the comments submitted to the docket #129. Appendix D provides a list of acronyms. The plan will be updated annually on the web.

ACTION PLAN UPDATE – The updated HCW Action Plan is being used to prioritize and select future PPT Program initiatives including funding, staffing, and upgrading laboratory capabilities within current budget constraints. The updated Plan activities are part of the overall PPT Program action plan that is under review by the NIOSH management. A summary timeline of this action plan is described as follows:

Draft action plan posted to NPPTL website (February2008)
Presented plan at stakeholder meeting (March 2008)
Opened docket to solicit comments (February 2008 – May 2008)
Addressed comments from docket (June 2008)
Updated action plan based on comments received (August 2008)
Updated Plan under review and being implemented within current budget constraints (October 2008 – April 2009)
Revise action plan based on strategic planning decisions and project outputs (May 2009).
Revision 4 (Draft) with highlighted portions indicating updates since the previous version
Implement action plan