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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced plans to award $17 million to fund projects aimed at preventing health care-associated infections (HAIs), Modern Healthcare reports. According to an HHS release, $8 million will fund a national expansion of the Keystone Project, a program developed by Johns Hopkins University and the Michigan Health & Hospital Association. Across 18 months, the program—which involves the use of a checklist of evidence-based practices, staff training, and the use of other tools—helped facilities reduce the rate of central-line infections in more than 100 Michigan ICUs, saving 1,500 lives and $200 million. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) last year funded an expansion of the Keystone Project to 10 states, and the program is now operating in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., with additional funds from AHRQ and the private sector. The HHS funding announced last week will extend the program to more hospitals and settings beyond intensive care units (ICUs) and will expand the program's focus to address other infections. Specifically, $6 million will go to the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) to fund efforts in additional hospitals to reduce central-line infections, $1 million will go to HRET to support a demonstration project to help fight catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and $1 million will go to Yale University to support efforts to prevent bloodstream infections in hemodialysis patients. The remaining $9 million will be applied toward projects in various hospitals and health systems that focus on several "high-priority areas" as identified by the AHRQ in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among other efforts, these projects will focus on reducing Clostridium difficile through a regional hospital collaborative; evaluating ways to reduce methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in ICUs, improving the measurement of the risk of post-surgery infections; implementing "teamwork principles" for frontline health care providers; and identifying the rates of HAIs acquired in acute care settings at the national, regional, and state levels (DerGuahian, Modern Healthcare, 10/23/09 [subscription required]; AHA News Now, 10/23/09; HHS release, 10/23/09; AHRQ fact sheet October 2009).