Hospital isolates C. difficile carriers and rates drop

There was slight increase in antibiotic use during the intervention period, Dr. Longtin said. “The only type of antibiotics that really decreased were vancomycin and metronidazole... which suggests in turn there were fewer cases of C. difficile infection.”

Long-term follow-up is ongoing, Dr. Longtin said. “We have more than 3 years of intervention. In the past year, our rate was 2.2 per 10,000 patient-days.”

Unanswered questions include the generalizability of the results “because we’re a very pro–infection control hospital,” he said. In addition, a formal cost-benefit analysis of this strategy would be worthwhile in the future.

Dr. Longtin is a consultant for AMG Medical and receives research support from Merck and BD Medical.