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Using diagnostic stewardship to reduce rates, healthcare expenditures and accurately identify cases of hospital-onset Clostridioides difficile infection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

Dipesh Solanky ,
Derek K. Juang ,
Scott T. Johns ,
Ian C. Drobish ,
Sanjay R. Mehta  and
Monika Kumaraswamy Open the ORCID record for Monika Kumaraswamy [Opens in a new window]
Dipesh Solanky*
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California Department of Medicine, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California
Derek K. Juang
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California Department of Medicine, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California
Scott T. Johns
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacy, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California
Ian C. Drobish
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California Department of Medicine, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California
Sanjay R. Mehta
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California Department of Medicine, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California Infectious Diseases Section, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California
Monika Kumaraswamy*
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California Department of Medicine, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California Infectious Diseases Section, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California Collaborative to Halt Antibiotic-Resistant Microbes (CHARM), University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California
*
Author for correspondence: Monika Kumaraswamy, E-mail: mkumaraswamy@ucsd.edu. Or Dipesh Solanky, E-mail: sdipesh@ucsd.edu
Author for correspondence: Monika Kumaraswamy, E-mail: mkumaraswamy@ucsd.edu. Or Dipesh Solanky, E-mail: sdipesh@ucsd.edu
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Abstract

Objective:

Lack of judicious testing can result in the incorrect diagnosis of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), unnecessary CDI treatment, increased costs and falsely augmented hospital-acquired infection (HAI) rates. We evaluated facility-wide interventions used at the VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS) to reduce healthcare-onset, healthcare-facility–associated CDI (HO-HCFA CDI), including the use of diagnostic stewardship with test ordering criteria.

Design:

We conducted a retrospective study to assess the effectiveness of measures implemented to reduce the rate of HO-HCFA CDI at the VASDHS from fiscal year (FY)2015 to FY2018.

Interventions:

Measures executed in a stepwise fashion included a hand hygiene initiative, prompt isolation of CDI patients, enhanced terminal room cleaning, reduction of fluoroquinolone and proton-pump inhibitor use, laboratory rejection of solid stool samples, and lastly diagnostic stewardship with C. difficile toxin B gene nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) criteria instituted in FY2018.

Results:

From FY2015 to FY2018, 127 cases of HO-HCFA CDI were identified. All rate-reducing initiatives resulted in decreased HO-HCFA cases (from 44 to 13; P ≤ .05). However, the number of HO-HCFA cases (34 to 13; P ≤ .05), potential false-positive testing associated with colonization and laxative use (from 11 to 4), hospital days (from 596 to 332), CDI-related hospitalization costs (from $2,780,681 to $1,534,190) and treatment cost (from $7,158 vs $1,476) decreased substantially following the introduction of diagnostic stewardship with test criteria from FY2017 to FY2018.

Conclusions:

Initiatives to decrease risk for CDI and diagnostic stewardship of C. difficile stool NAAT significantly reduced HO-HCFA CDI rates, detection of potential false-positives associated with laxative use, and lowered healthcare costs. Diagnostic stewardship itself had the most dramatic impact on outcomes observed and served as an effective tool in reducing HO-HCFA CDI rates.

Type
Original Article
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 51 - 56
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Copyright
© 2020 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. All rights reserved.

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Footnotes

a

Authors of equal contribution.

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