The National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) housed within CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) must receive $60 million in annual appropriations to sustain its critical modernization initiative.&nbsp;
Join SHEA by contacting your members of Congress to urge support for $60 million per year for NHSN. Your advocacy is essential to preserving and strengthening the nation’s most important HAI tracking and prevention tool.&nbsp;
What You Need to Do&nbsp;
1. Complete the attached form with your name and address.&nbsp;
&nbsp;- The platform will identify your Congressional delegation based on your ZIP code.&nbsp;
&nbsp;&nbsp;- Some districts may require your full 9-digit ZIP code.&nbsp;
2. Personalize the letter template by adding your experience and perspective as a healthcare epidemiology professional.&nbsp;
3. Send your message to your Senators and Representatives.&nbsp;
Send it to your Senators and Representatives. That’s it!&nbsp;&nbsp;
Thank you for being a SHEA advocate!&nbsp;&nbsp;

Support $60 Million for NHSN in the FY 2027 LHHS Bill

I am writing as your constituent and as a member of the healthcare epidemiology community to urge you to support sustained and strengthened funding for the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) in the FY 2027 appropriations process.

NHSN is housed within the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) and is the nation’s primary system for tracking and responding to healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) across facility, state, and federal levels. It is the most comprehensive and established tool for capturing, analyzing, and sharing data that drives infection prevention, outbreak response, and quality improvement in healthcare facilities across the country.

Today, NHSN supports 39,000 facilities, assists an average of 1,500 users at any given time, and receives approximately 400 help desk tickets daily, reflecting the system’s scale and critical role in real-time public health response. It is central to national preparedness, antimicrobial stewardship, and healthcare quality improvement. It supports CMS quality reporting and value-based payment programs, provides essential data for emergency response, and strengthens coordination among federal, state, and local partners during public health threats.

NHSN is nearing the completion of a major modernization initiative that will enable automation, FHIR-based data exchange, and digital quality measures. These advancements will reduce administrative burden, allow clinicians to spend more time on patient care, and improve the speed and accuracy of public health surveillance across all healthcare settings.

However, without increased annual appropriations, NHSN will be unable to sustain and operate this modernized system. The current annual funding level of $24 million is insufficient for long-term maintenance and expansion, especially as modernization reaches full implementation by the end of FY 2026. A fully modernized NHSN cannot operate on past funding levels, particularly since the system has grown from supporting approximately 17,000 facilities in 2016 to nearly 40,000 today.

For these reasons, I respectfully request that you:
•	Increase annual funding for NHSN to $60 million in FY 2027 to sustain the modernization initiative and ensure stable long-term operations; or
•	At a minimum, maintain the current base funding level of $24 million until Congress finalizes broader funding reforms for Executive Branch agencies.

Failure to adequately fund NHSN would undermine our ability to detect outbreaks, track emerging pathogens, and prepare for future infectious disease emergencies. Thank you for your leadership and your commitment to strengthening the nation’s public health and patient safety infrastructure. I urge you to make NHSN funding a priority in FY 2027.

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