The Business Case for Infection Prevention in Long-Term Care
Infection prevention is a vital component of high-quality long-term care. It supports resident safety, strengthens survey readiness, promotes staff stability, and protects your organization's reputation and financial performance.
The resources on this page bring together perspectives from healthcare, media, quality, leadership, and long-term care. Together, they highlight how investing in infection prevention supports stronger outcomes for residents, staff, and organizations alike.
The Care Navigation Perspective
Jennifer L. Vince
Founder & Principal, Senior Care Navigation | Illinois & Michigan
Jennifer Vince is the founder of Senior Care Navigation and a Geriatric Care Manager who guides seniors and families through some of the most consequential decisions of their lives — including long-term care placement. She developed the Master Aging Plan framework to help families plan proactively rather than reactively. With clients across Illinois and Michigan, she has seen firsthand what families wish they had known before choosing a facility — and what a strong infection prevention program looks like from the outside. Her perspective anchors the family-facing voice of this hub.
The Survey Preparedness Perspective
Leslie Milano
CEO, APIC Consulting
Leslie Milano is the CEO of APIC Consulting, a consulting practice that works directly inside long-term care facilities on survey readiness, infection prevention program assessment, and outbreak response. Her consultants go into facilities every day — placing interim infection preventionists, assessing program gaps, and helping facilities recover from deficiency citations. She has a front-row view of what separates facilities that are survey-ready from those that are not, and what it costs a facility when infection prevention is nobody's full-time job.
The Media & Health Literacy Perspective
Louis "Skip" Weiss
Publisher, Chicago Health & Caregiving Magazines
Skip Weiss is the publisher of Chicago Health and Caregiving magazines, two publications that have served the healthcare consumer and professional community in the Chicago area for more than two decades. His readership includes not just families navigating healthcare decisions, but also the physicians, discharge planners, and case managers who influence where seniors receive their care. A longtime advocate for health literacy, Skip brings a media professional's understanding of why certain health topics reach families — and why infection prevention in long-term care has remained largely invisible until now.
The VA & Family Checklist Perspective
Aaron Woodall
VA Healthcare & Family Education Expert
Aaron Woodall brings a perspective shaped by both his experience in VA healthcare — one of the most rigorous and accountable healthcare systems in the country — and his deep commitment to helping families understand what they should ask before choosing a long-term care facility. He developed a checklist specifically designed to help families evaluate infection prevention capabilities during a facility tour. His interview anchors the "Questions to Ask Before You Choose" section of this hub and offers families a practical, evidence-informed framework for making one of the most important decisions of their lives.
The Research & Clinical Perspective
Sahil Sharma, MD
Researcher & Clinical Expert
Sahil Sharma, MD brings a research and clinical lens to the business case for infection prevention in long-term care as a hospitalist with extensive experience with readmissions. His perspective bridges the gap between the evidence base and the practical realities of facility leadership — translating what the data shows about infection risk, antimicrobial resistance, and resident outcomes into language that decision-makers can act on. His interview speaks directly to the clinical and organizational case for dedicated, trained infection prevention expertise in long-term care.
The Long-Term Care Leadership Perspective
Deborah Patterson Burdsall, Ph.D., RN-BC, CIC, LTC-CIP, FAPIC
APIC President-Elect | Infection Prevention Consultant, Hektoen Institute of Medicine
Deb Burdsall has worked in long-term care since 1974. She started as a nurse's aide and has held virtually every role in the building — staff nurse, nursing supervisor, MDS coordinator, wound nurse, quality assurance coordinator, and clinical in-service coordinator — before earning her MSN and PhD from the University of Iowa College of Nursing. She holds both the CIC and the LTC-CIP, the certification designed specifically for long-term care infection preventionists, and is a Fellow of APIC. She currently consults with the Hektoen Institute and the Illinois Department of Public Health, working with congregate care settings across Illinois on evidence-based, cost-effective infection prevention strategies. She is APIC President-Elect and will serve as APIC President in 2027.
The Research & Clinical Evidence Perspective
Suzanne F. Bradley, MD
Professor Emerita of Internal Medicine
Dr. Suzanne F. Bradley is Professor Emerita of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School. She specializes in infectious diseases and geriatric medicine, with extensive research and clinical expertise focused on infection prevention and antibiotic stewardship in long-term care facilities and nursing homes. Her research spans multidrug-resistant organism transmission, antibiotic stewardship, and the practical realities of building effective infection prevention programs in nursing home environments. She brings both the scientific evidence and the clinical experience to make the case that infection prevention in long-term care is not a nursing add-on — it is a medical and institutional imperative.