Clinicians
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For Clinicians: 6 Steps to Prevention
- Prescribe and use antibiotics carefully. About 50% of all antibiotics given are not needed, unnecessarily raising the risk of C. difficile infections.
- Test for C. difficile when patients have diarrhea while on antibiotics or within several months of taking them.
- Isolate patients with C. difficile immediately.
- Wear gloves and gowns when treating patients with C. difficile, even during short visits. Hand sanitizer does not kill C. difficile, and hand washing may not be sufficient.
- Clean room surfaces with bleach or another EPA-approved, spore-killing disinfectant after a patient with C. difficile has been treated there.
- When a patient transfers, notify the new facility if the patient has a C. difficile infection.
C. difficile infections can be prevented. Doctors and other medical staff can avoid prescribing unnecessary antibiotics, identify and isolate C. difficile patients early, and wear gloves when treating these patients.
Frequently Asked Questions
Guidelines and Recommendations
- SHEA-IDSA Guideline Clinical Practice Guidelines for Clostridium difficile Infection in Adults: 2010 Update by SHEA and IDSA [PDF - 549KB]
- Update on Hand Hygiene and C. difficile: Rationale for Hand Hygiene Recommendations after Caring for a Patient with Clostridium difficile Infection [PDF 134 KB]
- Guideline for Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare Settings, 2007
- Management of Multidrug-Resistant Organisms In Healthcare Settings, 2006
- Guideline for Environmental Infection Control in Health-Care Facilities, 2003 [PDF - 1.4 MB]
CDC Expert Commentaries
Testing for Clostridium difficile Infection
Dr. Carolyn Gould talks about which patients should be tested for C. difficile, which testing methods are appropriate, and one thing you should not do.
Tools
To help address the challenges of managing and controlling healthcare-associated infection outbreaks in healthcare settings, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is offering toolkits for healthcare professionals including up-to-date information, recommended infection control measures, and tools for outbreak response coordination and reporting. The toolkits contain a variety of materials to support outbreak response as well as staff and patient education efforts.
Clostridium difficile Infections Tools
- Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) Infections Toolkit [PDF -1.04 MB]
- available in customizable format C. difficile Toolkit [PPT - 4.34 MB]
Activity C: ELC Prevention Collaboratives
- available in customizable format C. difficile Toolkit [PPT - 4.34 MB]
- Clostridium difficile Infection Baseline Prevention Practices Assessment Tool For States Establishing HAI Prevention Collaboratives [PDF - 241 KB]
More Resources
- Get Smart for Healthcare: Implementing and Improving Antibiotic Stewardship Efforts
- CDC Clinician's Podcast on C. difficile Prevention
- Infection Control in the Multidrug-Resistant Era: Tending the Human Microbiome Pritish K. Tosh; L. Clifford McDonald Clinical Infectious Diseases 2011; doi: 10.1093/cid/cir899
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