Study shows how hospitals can reduce CDIs

Hospitals can reduce Clostridioides difficile infections (CDI) in patients by implementing an admission-screening question and a two-step testing process, according to a study published in the Journal of Infection Control. To identify cases, nurses asked patients upon admission if they had one or more liquid stools in the past 24 hours. All patients underwent a two-step testing process to decrease the diagnosis of new CDI cases. CDI cases declined from roughly 160 in each of the three years before the screening question and two-step testing processes were implemented to fewer than 65 in each of the three years after implementation. (American Journal of Infection Control study, 9/5/22)