How Are Current Infection Control Measures Falling Short Against C. difficile?

Barley Chironda, RPN, CIC, infection control specialist at Clorox Healthcare, explains current infection control measures taken to prevent C. difficile and the reasons why they are falling short.

Interview Transcript (modified slightly for readability):

“Some infection control strategies that I use in health care settings right now, I would lump into three buckets. First off, there’s hand hygiene, which is the washing of hands, and that has to be done every single time that you come into contact with a patient. I’ll speak to some of the complications that are being faced. The other thing that goes on is antimicrobial stewardship, so that’s the use of proper antibiotics at every single point in time so that you don’t use them irresponsibly. Then thirdly, is the disinfection processes that are done on every single surface of the hospital setting. And so, these are three buckets.

In terms of where are we falling short? Really, I think, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done every single time a health care worker leaves a room, and for the pressure that’s there around the turnaround time, the pressure of all the resources, it creates a lot of complications. And so, I would say the one big thing that’s really there right now is there is so much pressure to do good work that it falls through the cracks in the system.”