Clostridium difficile infection: impact of an initiative to reduce rates and improve outcomes
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Samantha Lippett; Giovanni Satta; James Price; Jasmin Islam; Marc Cubbon; Martin J. Llewelyn; Vhairi Bateman
- Source
- Journal of Infection. 59:S443
- Subject
- Microbiology (medical)
medicine.medical_specialty
Infectious Diseases
Disease severity
medicine.drug_class
business.industry
Cohort
Antibiotics
medicine
Clostridium difficile
bacterial infections and mycoses
Intensive care medicine
business
- Language
- ISSN
- 0163-4453
C. difficile associated diarrhoea (CDAD) is the most frequent hospital-acquired infection in the NHS. Rates have increased markedly in recent years and there has been considerable concern that disease severity is also increasing. Many NHS Trusts have opened wards for cohorting CDAD patients and introduced restrictive antibiotic policies. In January 2008 we launched an initiative to combat CDAD in our hospital. This comprised the opening of an 11bed cohort ward, introduction of an antibiotic policy encouraging use of penicillins and aminoglycosides in place of cephalosporins and quinolones and a treatment algorithm for the management of CDAD. Here we report the impact of these measures.