Clostridium difficile is a bacterium that causes diarrhea and more serious intestinal conditions. The organism is responsible for 337,000 infections and 14,000 deaths every year nationally. States have reported increased rates of C. difficile infection, noting more severe disease and in increase in mortality. Death rates due to C difficile are highest in the elderly (90%). However, almost half of infections occur in people younger than 65. These changes maybe largely be due to the emergence of a strong C difficile strain. This strain spread widely after first being reported in in early 2000s and appears more virulent and resistant to antibiotics traditionally used to treat C. difficile.
Strategies and Tools
The overall aim of the project is to implement antibiotic stewardship best practice testing methodologies and emerging concepts in the area of healthy biomes in an effort to reduce hopsital wide occurrence of C. difficile.
Measuring Results
The outcome measure will be improvement in the number of lab confirmed C. difficile cases, and the use of select target antibiotics. The process measure will be antibiotic stewardship bundle implementation.
