Effective infection prevention and control (IPC) depends on strong connections between local health departments (LHDs) and healthcare facilities. NACCHO’s Project Firstline offers resources to help LHDs communicate their role, build relationships with healthcare partners, and identify opportunities for collaboration.
Local Health Department: Activity Worksheet & Partnership Reference Templates help LHDs identify the programs, services, and expertise they can share with healthcare facility partners. The customizable resource guides LHDs in developing an IPC partnership reference sheet as well as a broader introduction to their health department, including their jurisdiction, programs, services, and current priorities.
These materials can be used to introduce an LHD to new healthcare facility staff, support the development of a new partnership, or provide a foundation for strengthening an existing relationship.
Visioning Activities: Future Headlines & Why Word Cloud offer collaborative ways for LHDs and healthcare facilities to think beyond immediate activities and envision the results they want to achieve together as well as ground them in thinking through the importance of infection prevention and control.
The activities can help partners explore shared goals, priorities, and opportunities for improvement and provide a starting point for continued conversations, planning, training, quality improvement, and other partnership activities.
Together, these resources can help LHDs make their role in healthcare IPC clear, foster stronger connections with healthcare partners, and work toward shared infection prevention goals.
Explore the Project Firstline resources and start strengthening your healthcare IPC partnerships with NACCHO’s Infection Prevention and Control Resource Library. All tools included are free, however; you are required to be logged in to your MyNACCHO account to access.
