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HealthTrust & Abbott (formerly Alere) present…

Program Summary

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) causes intestinal inflammation that can lead to
serious and life-threatening illnesses. In a healthcare environment such as a
hospital or nursing home, C-diff can easily spread through contaminated surfaces
or person-to-person contact. CDIs pose a serious threat and require rapid clinical
decisions. In the United States, C-diff is linked to more than 30,000 deaths a year.
During the past several years, the focus of C-diff testing has moved from organism
identification to a renewed interest in detecting the toxins that cause the disease.
The incidence of patients who are simply colonized with C-diff is up to 10 times the
number of patients with active CDI. Treating carriers is often ineffective and may
even increase the risk of the patient developing CDI. This program will cover
updated 2017 CDI treatment guidelines and recommendations from the Infectious
Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of
America (SHEA), describe how those updates apply to patient populations, and
demonstrate how the microbiology laboratory can assist in preventing CDIs.

Learning Objectives  | At the end of this session, participants should be able to:

1. Interpret the updated IDSA/SHEA CDI guidelines and treatment recommendations
2. Apply the updated 2017 IDSA/SHEA CDI guidelines and recommendations for C-diff diagnostics to your patient population
3. Identify the role of microbiology laboratory in preventing CDI

Presenter:

Erik Richard Dubberke, M.D., MSPH, FSHEA, FIDSA  | Associate Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Division, Department of Medicine  | Washington University School of Medicine

Target Audience: Nurses and Infection Control and Laboratory Professionals

Continuing Education information: This program has been approved by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) for 1.00 Synergy CERPs Category A, File Number 22330.
Whitehat Communications is an approved provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory
sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E. Program.

This program is supported by Whitehat Communications and co-sponsored by Abbott (formerly Alere)