Challenges of Clostridium Difficile in Long Term Care

Challenges of Clostridium Difficile in Long Term Care 

In this webinar series, Dr. Clifford McDonald of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides an overview of how Clostridium difficile causes disease, how it is diagnosed, and how it is transmitted between patients. Exploring why this is an issue nursing homes and long term care facilities will have to grapple with on several levels: nursing, environmental services, infection control and pharmacy.

Dr. McDonald discusses how the disease is becoming more common and more severe, which has led to a new epidemic strain of C. difficile. The most important risk factor for developing C. difficile-associated disease (CDAD) is antimicrobial use, making careful use of antibiotics in your facilities more critical than ever. Although these drugs are essential in the care of many patients, overuse is common and an important CDAD control strategy is to reduce unnecessary antimicrobial use. Because this organism produces spores, preventing transmission can be difficult; C. difficile may persist in the environment and requires special measures to prevent contamination of healthcare workers hands and special environmental cleaning strategies. And with a five-fold increase in risk for those over 65 and an overall 20% rate of reoccurence, this is a problem you need to be planning for—not reacting to—in your facility.

This presentation focuses on what you must know to reduce rates of CDAD among patients in your facility and what can be done if you are seeing increasing rates and severity of CDAD in your facility.

Presentation Objectives

Participants in this training program will be able to:

• Understand the causes of C. difficile and how it is transmitted
• Show how C. difficile is changing and creating greater infection control challenges
• Identify the risk factors for developing C. difficile associated disease (CDAD)
• Apply proper prevention strategies in the long-term care environment