Skip to main content

C. difficile hits new high in hospitals. Deaths up 467%

A new report from the CDC ( the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) states that the  incidence, mortality, and medical care costs for C. difficile infections have reached historic highs.


From 2000 to 2009, the number of hospitalized patients with any C. difficile diagnoses more than doubled, from approximately 139,000 to 336,600, and the number with a primary C. difficile diagnosis more than tripled, from 33,000 to 111,000.


The estimated number of deaths attributed to C. difficile increased from 3,000 deaths per year during 1999–2000 to 14,000 during 2006–2007. Ontario still refuses to report hospital deaths associated with C. difficile or other superbugs.  If the number is proportionate to the US figure, about 600 deaths would be attributed to C. difficile per year. 


The CDC estimates "excess health-care costs" of hospital-onset C. difficile at $5,042–$7,179 per case with a national annual estimated excess health-care cost of $897 million to $1.3 billion. 


Much of the recent increase in the incidence and mortality of C. difficile is attributed by the CDC to the emergence and spread of a hypervirulent, resistant strain of C. difficile that produces greater quantities of toxins and that has additional factors enhancing its virulence.  


The CDC adds that "many of these infections can be prevented". 


The CDC notes:   "Health-care environmental services have a key role in reducing contamination that can directly transmit to patients or contaminate the hands of health-care personnel.   Because C. difficile spores resist killing by usual hospital disinfectants, an Environmental Protection Agency–registered disinfectant with a C. difficile sporicidal label claim should be used to augment thorough physical cleaning."
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 29, 2012 at 9:52 AM

    I was in the North York General Hospital, dirty surgical ward in February of this year....I went in with acute divorticulousis and diabets...and ended up with C-Diff hospital acquired. What a nightmare, when I was released, I was wiped right out, slept for 12 hours, couldn't do anything for 5 weeks, lost 25 lbs...but thank God I made it. Wonder how patients of other hospitals filed law suits? Market place did a story on housekeeping of hospitals several months ago...they were right on, hospitals need to do some real serious cleaning to protect the patients and vistors. l Reeves

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data.   This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization.   Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion.  That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year.   The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million.     In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations...
Post a Comment
Read more

The hospital crisis: No capacity, no plan, no end

While Canada has achieved universal public healthcare coverage, that does not mean conservative forces have given up trying to erode that coverage and expand corporate care where it does not currently exist. The battle has become particularly intense in Ontario under the Ford Progressive Conservative government, which is implementing serious cuts to the level of care and moving to bring in for-profit mini-hospitals. Inadequate Staffing.   Less and less of hospital spending is on staff.   Employee compensation as a share of hospital expenditures has consistently shrunk in Ontario. This is not some immutable law of hospital development.  It is in stark contrast with the rest of Canada, where compensation has become a larger share and now accounts for 67.1%. Hospitals in provinces other than Ontario now have 18 percent more staff per capita than hospitals in Ontario. Overall, if Ontario had the same staffing capacity as the other provinces and territories, there would be another...
Post a Comment
Read more

The long series of failures of private clinics in Ontario

For many years, OCHU/CUPE has been concerned the Ontario government would transfer public hospital surgeries, procedures and diagnostic tests to private clinics. CUPE began campaigning in earnest against this possibility in the spring of 2007 with a tour of the province by former British Health Secretary, Frank Dobson, who talked about the disastrous British experience with private surgical clinics. The door opened years ago with the introduction of fee-for-service hospital funding (sometimes called Quality Based Funding). Then in the fall of 2013 the government announced regulatory changes to facilitate this privatization. The government announced Request for Proposals for the summer of 2014 to expand the role of "Independent Health Facilities" (IHFs).  With mass campaigns to stop the private clinic expansion by the Ontario Health Coalition the process slowed.   But it seems the provincial Liberal government continues to push the idea.  Following a recent second...
Post a Comment
Read more