An intervention that involves four changes to processes helped Stony Brook (N.Y.) University Hospital slash its Clostridium difficile infection rates, according to a study published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
The hospital's quality improvement team implemented an approach that involved:
• Implementing IT-based alerts to enforce appropriate specimen collection and laboratory testing
• Incorporating an antimicrobial stewardship program
• Enhancing monitoring when turning over rooms from one patient to the next
• Having staff undergo an extensive educational module
The study shows the average monthly C. diff rate before the intervention was implemented in 2015 was 11.94 per 10,000 patient days, that is, the number of days the patient spent in the hospital, and it fell to 7.35 per 10,000 patient days.
Average laboratory testing volume decreased from about 290 tests per month to 177 tests per month.