Andrea Flinchum is the Program Manager program for the Healthcare-Associated Infection/Antibiotic Resistance Prevention Program at the Kentucky Department for Public Health, furthering their mission of preventing and eliminating healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic resistant organisms.
Andrea started her career as a bedside nurse at the University of Kentucky Hospital in 1988 with an associate degree in nursing. She spent 17 years at the bedside and then changed careers to become an infection preventionist. She joined the Infection Prevention and Control Program at the hospital and obtained my Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
While at the hospital, she enrolled in the Master of Public Health Program at the University of Kentucky, soon realizing what a connection there was between infection prevention and public health.
Andrea is a nationally board certified in Infection Control and Epidemiology and is a fellow of the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. After five years working in the Infection Prevention and Control program, she joined the Department for Public Health.
She began in the Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention/Antibiotic Resistance (HAI/AR) Prevention Program at the Kentucky Department for Public Health in 2011 and became the program manager in 2012, providing support to infection preventionists across the state in all types of healthcare settings. Through her tenure with the program, she made HAIs/AR organisms reportable conditions through regulation, furthering the understanding of this prevalence and responding to organisms of public health interest.
Are patients and communities healthy? Are people being taken care of in their communities?
