Melissa Schaefer, MD

Dr. Schaefer is a medical officer in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She received a BS from the University of Notre Dame and obtained her medical degree from Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. She completed an Emergency Medicine residency at the University of California, Davis and is board certified in emergency medicine. After completing her residency training, she served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer at CDC where she led multiple outbreak investigations in healthcare settings. She currently works on the ambulatory and long-term care team in DHQP. Her efforts focus on infection prevention in ambulatory care settings with a particular emphasis on ambulatory surgical centers (ASC) and issues related to injection safety. She serves as a member of the Health and Human Services (HHS) ASC Workgroup, responsible for development of the National Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections in ASCs. Recent work has also included collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop an infection control worksheet evaluating infection control practices in ASCs during facility inspections.