Health care-associated infection (HAI) rates are used as measures of a health care facility's quality of patient care. Recently, these outcomes have been used to publicly rank quality efforts and determine facility reimbursement. The value of comparing HAI rates among health care facilities is limited by many factors inherent to HAI surveillance, and incentives that reward low HAI rates can lead to unintended consequences that can compromise medical care surveillance efforts, such as the use of clinical adjudication panels to veto events that meet HAI surveillance definitions.The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee, a federal advisory committee that provides advice and guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services about strategies for surveillance, prevention, and control of HAIs, assessed the challenges associated with using HAI surveillance data for external quality reporting, including the unintended consequences of clinician veto and clinical adjudication panels. Discussions with stakeholder liaisons and committee members were then used to formulate recommended standards for the use of HAI surveillance data for external facility assessment to ensure valid comparisons and to provide as level a playing field as possible.The final recommendations advocate for consistent, objective, and independent application of CDC HAI definitions with concomitant validation of HAIs and surveillance processes. The use of clinician veto and adjudication is discouraged.

Among former prisoners, a high rate of death has been documented in the early postrelease period, particularly from drug-related causes. Little is known about risk factors and trends in postrelease mortality in the past decade, especially given general population increases in overdose deaths from pharmaceutical opioids.

Maintaining health and well-being in aging populations is critical.

Consensus guidelines recommend against testing or treating adults at low risk for group A streptococcal (GAS) pharyngitis.

An association between HIV and invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) has been suggested by several previous studies but has not been fully described in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy in the United States.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) developed this guideline to present the evidence and provide clinical recommendations on the screening, monitoring, and treatment of adults with stage 1 to 3 chronic kidney disease.

Earlier identification of cognitive impairment may reduce patient and caregiver morbidity.