HAI/AR Programs: Recipient Health Departments and Funding

CDC’s HAI/AR Program

CDC’s Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance (HAI/AR) Program works to prevent and control HAI/AR threats and improve safety across the healthcare spectrum. The Program awards funding through the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Cooperative Agreement (ELC) to a network of 64 state, local, territorial, and U.S.-affiliated health department HAI/AR Programs. These health departments conduct activities in the following focus areas:

• HAI/AR response and prevention
• Antibiotic stewardship
• Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network (AR Lab Network)
• Infection prevention and control education and training
• National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)
• Strike team support for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities

Program Evolution

In 2009, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Steering Committee for the Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections published the HHS Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections. Along with providing a roadmap for HAI prevention in acute care hospitals, the Plan outlined expanded roles for health departments to play, including coordinating, assisting, and monitoring their jurisdiction’s HAI/AR tracking, prevention, and response activities. In turn, CDC administers funding to health departments to help them expand their contributions in these key areas as well as support implementation of the National Action Plan to Combat Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria, 2020-2025.

Recipient Health Departments

CDC-funded HAI/AR Programs now include all 50 state health departments, five local health departments (Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, New York City, Philadelphia), the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S Virgin Islands, and six U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands. To learn more about a recipient health department’s HAI/AR Program, navigate to their website by clicking below.

Current Recipient Health Department Funding

Listed below are funding amounts awarded to recipient health department HAI/AR Programs through the 2022-2023 ELC funding cycle.

COVID-19 Funding Support for HAI/AR Programs

Between 2020 and 2022, CDC distributed more than $1 billion of COVID-19 supplemental appropriations through the ELC Cooperative Agreement to strengthen and equip health departments and other partner organizations to prevent and fight infections in U.S. healthcare facilities, including COVID-19 and other known and emerging infectious diseases. HAI/AR activities supported with this funding include, but are not limited to:

• ELC CARES [PDF – 7 Pages]
• ELC Enhancing Detection and Enhancing Detection Expansion [PDF – 17 Pages]
• Project Firstline
• Strengthening HAI/AR Program Capacity [PDF – 22 Pages]
• Nursing Home & Long-term Care Facility Strike Team and Infrastructure Project [PDF – 12 Pages]

Visit the COVID-19 State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Funding map to learn more.