C. Diff Precautions in Healthcare Settings
Despite advancements in infection prevention, C.diff outbreaks still occur in hospitals.
- In the United States, about 200,000 people are infected annually with C. difficile in a hospital or care setting. (source)
When faced with an increasing number of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), providers must regroup and ensure that all C. diff precautions are being taken, including ways to obtain and better understand data related to infections in the hospital.
Find information related to C.diff, C.diff precautions, and actionable data collection here.
What is C. diff?
According to the CDC, “Clostridioides difficile (also known as C. diff) is a bacterium that causes diarrhea and colitis (an inflammation of the colon). It’s estimated to cause almost half a million illnesses in the United States each year.”
This illness can be life-threatening, especially to senior citizens. The CDC reports that 1 in 11 people over age 65 died of a healthcare-associated C. diff infection within a month of diagnosis.
C. diff is considered a healthcare-associated infection (HAI).
How is C. diff spread?
C. diff is carried in feces and can spread in healthcare settings or at home. It is primarily spread by poor hand hygiene or frequently touched surfaces like doorknobs, toilet seats, and dirty laundry.
In healthcare settings, C. diff spores are “transferred to patients mainly via the hands of healthcare personnel who have touched a contaminated surface or item.” The transmission of C.diff and other healthcare-associated infections through unwashed hands has prompted many healthcare providers to more closely scrutinize their institution’s hand hygiene compliance.
C. diff precautions
The CDC outlines a number of precautions for preventing the spread of C. diff, including contact precautions, proper sanitation, and frequent handwashing. Hospitals that have experienced recent outbreaks will need to evaluate whether all of these precautions are being properly followed, especially those related to sanitation and hand hygiene.
Isolation of patient and contact precautions
Patients with a suspected or diagnosed case of C. diff should be placed in private rooms. Contact precautions for healthcare providers, especially hand hygiene, is critical. According to the CDC, “using gloves to prevent hand contamination remains the cornerstone for preventing C. diff transmission via the hands of healthcare personnel.”
The CDC recommends following these precautions at least until diarrhea stops, but institutions may want to wait until several days after the symptoms resolve, as patients with C. diff can “continue to shed the organism for a number of days following the cessation of diarrea.”
Proper sanitation of surfaces
The CDC provides guidelines on cleaning and disinfecting environmental services, including medical equipment and housekeeping surfaces.
It is recommended that high-touch surfaces such as “doorknobs, bed rails, light switches, and surfaces in and around toilets in patients’ rooms” should be disinfected more frequently than housekeeping surfaces like walls and floors.There are also guidelines for properly cleaning spills of potentially infectious materials/body substances (E.II). For C. diff patients this will likely be diarrhea, but surfaces with blood and other bodily fluids should also be cleaned and sanitized appropriately.
It is critical that healthcare providers properly swab infected areas with EPA-registered hospital disinfectants; according to the CDC, “removal of C. diff spores is “more challenging than the removal or inactivation of other common pathogens.”
Find the EPA’s list of Registered Antimicrobial Products Effective against Clostridium difficile Spores here.
Frequent and proper handwashing
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the most effective way to prevent the spread of C. diff and other healthcare associated infections is through frequent hand hygiene, including hand washing and the use of alcohol-based hand rubs.
Hand washing is particularly important in preventing the spread of C. diff. The CDC notes that “Because alcohol does not kill C. diff spores, use of soap and water is more effective than alcohol-based hand rubs.” Healthcare providers should make sure they are following proper hand washing procedure, which should take 40-60 seconds.
The World Health Organization provides a step by step guide to washing your hands thoroughly with soap and water.
Hand hygiene compliance and monitoring
Hand hygiene is only effective if healthcare providers are complying with guidelines. Healthcare providers who aren’t held accountable to hand hygiene standards can forget to follow or simply disregard best practices. An electronic hand hygiene compliance solution can monitor these providers and remind them to practice frequent handwashing. This can help prevent the spread of C. diff and other infections that are easily spread by unwashed hands.
BioVigil, for example, provides a gentle reminder sequence on a user-worn badge to perform hand hygiene if the user forgets. The system provides actionable insights about your hospital’s compliance in a configurable dashboard to drive meaningful hand hygiene compliance results. Alerts about patient cross-contamination engagements allow you to be proactive about patient safety and keep the rate C. diff and other of HAIs low.
This electronic hand hygiene compliance solution has been proven to sustain 97% hand hygiene compliance and reduces HAIs by up to 83%. In fact, a recently published study by AJIC shows a 60% reduction in C. diff rates after deploying BioVigil’s electronic hand hygiene solution.
Final thoughts: C. diff and hand washing
Hand washing plays a critical role in preventing the spread of C. diff in hospitals; HAIs are almost impossible to slow and contain without proper hand hygiene.
Healthcare settings that have struggled with C. diff outbreaks in the past or want to be proactive about prevention need to ensure that care providers are complying with hand washing and other hand hygiene best practices.
A monitoring solution like BioVigil can help measure the different types of hand hygiene events, analyze cross-contamination, and remind staff to perform the proper type of hand hygiene. These efforts have been shown to minimize the potential spread of C. diff.
To learn more, read our whitepaper Preventing the Spread of C. Diff with Automated Hand Hygiene Solutions.