Infection control and hospital epidemiology : the official journal of the Society of Hospital Epidemiologists of America
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Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · Jul 2011
Using electronic health information to risk-stratify rates of Clostridium difficile infection in US hospitals.
Expanding hospitalized patients' risk stratification for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is important for improving patient safety. We applied definitions for hospital-onset (HO) and community-onset (CO) CDI to electronic data from 85 hospitals between January 2007 and June 2008 to identify factors associated with higher HO CDI rates. ⋯ Electronic health information can be leveraged to risk-stratify HO CDI rates by patient age and CO-NHA prevalence on admission. Hospitals should optimize diagnostic testing to improve patient care and measured CDI rates.
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Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · Jul 2011
Isolation of Acinetobacter baumannii complex and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from hospital rooms following terminal cleaning and disinfection: can we do better?
To study the frequency of isolation of Acinetobacter baumannii complex (ABC) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from surfaces of rooms newly vacated by patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) ABC following various rounds of routine terminal cleaning and disinfection (C/D) with bleach or 1 round of C/D followed by hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV) treatment. ⋯ Routine terminal C/D of hospital rooms vacated by MDRABC-positive patients may be associated with a significant number of ABC- or MRSA-positive room surfaces even when up to 4 rounds of C/D are performed. The addition of HPV treatment to 1 round of C/D appears effective in reducing the number of persistently contaminated room sites in this setting.