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Hospital-acquired C. difficile lengthens hospital stay, retrospective study shows
Hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile significantly prolongs the duration of a patient's stay in the hospital by at least 6 days, according to the findings of a study published online December 5, for the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile significantly prolongs the duration of a patient's stay in the hospital by at least 6 days, according to the findings of a study published online December 5, for the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Alan J. Forster, MD, MSc, from the University of Ottawa, and colleagues conducted a retrospective observational cohort study to measure the independent association between infection with hospital-acquired C. difficile and time to discharge, accounting for each patient's risk of death upon admission and the variable time each patient spent in the hospital before acquiring the bacteria.
Looking at a single academic hospital between July 1, 2002, and March 31, 2009, researchers identified 1,393 of 136,877 patients who contracted hospital-acquired infection with C. difficile (overall risk 1.02%; 95% CI, 0.97%–1.06%). Of these, 75.5% were identified on or after the 7th day spent in the hospital.
The crude median length of hospital stay was 34 days for patients with hospital-acquired C. difficile and 8 days for those without. The hazard ratio for discharge by day 7 among patients with hospital-acquired C. difficile was 0.55 (95% CI, 0.39–0.70) for patients in the lowest decile of baseline risk of death and 0.45 (95% CI, 0.32–0.58) for those in the highest decile; while the hazard ratios for discharge by day 28 were 0.74 (95% CI, 0.60–0.87) and 0.61 (95% CI, 0.53–0.68), demonstrating that C. difficile had a larger impact on length of stay for patients at higher baseline risk.
"We found that the impact of hospital-acquired C. difficile on length of stay is more conservative than previous estimates have suggested," the authors noted. "Nevertheless, the impact remains large, especially when one considers the aggregated impact."
Coalition promotes important acetaminophen dosing reminders
November 18th 2014It may come as a surprise that each year Americans catch approximately 1 billion colds, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that as many as 20% get the flu. This cold and flu season, 7 in 10 patients will reach for an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine to treat their coughs, stuffy noses, and sniffles. It’s an important time of the year to remind patients to double check their medicine labels so they don’t double up on medicines containing acetaminophen.
Support consumer access to specialty medications through value-based insurance design
June 30th 2014The driving force behind consumer cost-sharing provisions for specialty medications is the acquisition cost and not clinical value. This appears to be true for almost all public and private health plans, says a new report from researchers at the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design (V-BID Center) and the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC).
Management of antipsychotic medication polypharmacy
June 13th 2013Within our healthcare-driven society, the increase in the identification and diagnosis of mental illnesses has led to a proportional increase in the prescribing of psychotropic medications. The prevalence of mental illnesses and subsequent treatment approaches may employ monotherapy as first-line treatment, but in many cases the use of combination of therapy can occur, leading to polypharmacy.1 Polypharmacy can be defined in several ways but it generally recognized as the use of multiple medications by one patient and the most common definition is the concurrent use of five more medications. The presence of polyharmacy has the potential to contribute to non-compliance, drug-drug interactions, medication errors, adverse events, or poor quality of life.
Medical innovation improves outcomes
June 12th 2013I have been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer of the pancreas, a disease that’s long been considered not just incurable, but almost impossible to treat-a recalcitrant disease that some practitioners feel has given oncology a bad name. I was told my life would be measured in weeks.
