Patients staying in a hospital bed previously occupied by a patient with a Clostridium difficile infection have a higher risk of contracting one themselves, according to new research published Dec. 13 in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
The study was led by researchers at Atlanta-based Emory University School of Medicine and is based on data from more than 25,000 hosptial encounters covering nearly 19,000 patients at two academic medical centers in the city from April 2018 to August 2019. Researchers used a real-time location system to track the movement of hospital beds and defined patients as being exposed to a potentially "contaminated" bed or room if, within the seven days before a hospital onset C. diff diagnosis, they stayed in a bed that another patient with C. diff had stayed in the previous 90 days.
In unadjusted analyses, researchers found staying in a contaminated bed was associated with C. diff infection, with an odds ratio of 1.8. In adjusted analyses, the odds ratio was 1.5.
"This research has important implications for understanding transmission dynamics of C. difficile throughout a hospital and indicates the need for improved cleaning and disinfection protocols of the hospital bed and the surrounding healthcare environment," the study said. "Real-time tracking of hospital beds also has the potential to aid in outbreak investigations of HO-CDI by identifying connections (eg. shared beds) between patients that traditional epidemiologic methods may miss."