(a) The Secretary of the Department shall appoint an Advisory Committee, which shall include: 1 infection control professional who has responsibility for infection control programs for each hospital or health-care system in Delaware; 4 infection disease physicians with expertise in infection control; 1 representative of the Delaware Health Care Facilities Association; 1 representative of a freestanding surgical center; 1 representative of a dialysis center; 1 representative of a psychiatric facility; 1 representative from the State Division of Public Health; and the Public Health Healthcare Associated Infections Specialist responsible for collating and reporting data. The Secretary shall also appoint 8 other members of the Committee including representatives from direct care nursing staff, academic researchers, consumer organizations, health insurers, health maintenance organizations, organized labor and purchasers of health insurance, such as employers. The Advisory Committee shall have the authority to engage personnel with appropriate training and/or certification in infection prevention and control for the purposes of collecting data.

(b) The Advisory Committee shall assist the Department in the development of all aspects of the Department’s methodology for collection, analyzing and disclosing the information collected under this chapter, including collection methods, formatting and methods and means for release and dissemination.

(c) In developing the methodology for collecting and analyzing the infection rate data, the Department and the Advisory Committee shall adopt the methodologies and system for data collection from the Centers for Disease Control’s National Healthcare Safety Network, or its successor. The data collection and analysis methodology shall be disclosed to the public prior to any public disclosure of health-care associated infection rates.

(d) The Advisory Committee shall assist the Department in the sharing of information and best practices toward the development of activities and policies that:

(1) Enhance coordination between health-care facilities throughout the continuum of care for the prevention and control of health-care associated infections;

(2) Promote the prevention and control of health-care associated infections generally; and

(3) Encourage the creation of benchmarks against which to measure progress in the prevention and control of health-care associated infections.

78 Del. Laws, c. 351, § ?1;