A study, published in the American Journal of Infection Control, examined the impact of interhospital patient transfers on the risk of Clostridium difficile infection.
Researchers examined the number of interhospital patient transfers and C. diff cases from 11 academic and 40 large community hospitals between 2010 and 2015 in Canada. They used the data to compute a C. diff score for each sending facility as a measure of C. diff pressure on the receiving facility
The C. diff score ranged from 0 to103. Every 10-point increase in the C. diff score was associated with a 4.5 percent increase in the incidence of C. diff in the receiving academic hospital and 3.6 percent increase in the receiving large community hospital.
"Our results suggest interhospital patient transfers increase the risk of CDI," study authors concluded. "Antimicrobial stewardship programs appear to reduce this risk; however, these ASP effects demonstrate significant heterogeneity across hospitals."