title: Prevention of Clostridium difficile infection in rural hospitals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Prevention of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) remains challenging across the spectrum of health care. There are limited data on prevention practices for CDI in the rural health care setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  An electronic survey was administered to 21 rural facilities in Wisconsin, part of the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative. Data were collected on hospital characteristics and practices to prevent endemic CDI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifteen facilities responded (71%). Nearly all respondent facilities reported regular use of dedicated patient care items, use of gown and gloves, private patient rooms, hand hygiene, and room cleaning. Facilities in which the infection preventionist thought the support of his/her leadership to be "Very good" or "Excellent" employed significantly more CDI practices (13.3 ± 2.4 [standard deviation]) compared with infection preventionists who thought there was less support from leadership (9.8 ± 3.0, P = .033). Surveillance for CDI was highly variable. The most frequent barriers to implementation of CDI prevention practices included lack of adequate resources, lack of a physician champion, and difficulty keeping up with new recommendations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although most rural facilities in our survey reported using evidence-based practices for prevention of CDI, surveillance practices were highly variable, and data regarding the impact of these practices on CDI rates were limited. Future efforts that correlate CDI prevention initiatives and CDI incidence will help develop evidence-based practices in these resource-limited settings.
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Haun
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hofer
authors.affiliation: Division of General Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI; Ann Arbor VA Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: M Todd
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Greene
authors.affiliation: Wisconsin Division of Public Health, Madison, WI.
authors.forename: Gwen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Borlaug
authors.affiliation: Grant Regional Health Center, Lancaster, WI.
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pritchett
authors.affiliation: Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital, Sauk Prairie, WI.
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Scallon
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI; William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI. Electronic address: ns2@medicine.wisc.edu.
authors.forename: Nasia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Safdar
mesh_terms: D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003625:Data Collection; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D004751:Enteritis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006780:Hospitals, Rural; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods*; D014922:Wisconsin / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Evidence-based practices; Health care-associated; Survey