Facilities/Settings

Health Care Facility Administrators Can:

• Support better testing practices, tracking, and reporting of infections and prevention efforts.
• Ensure policies for rapid detection and isolation of patients with C. difficile are in place and followed.
• Assess hospital cleaning to be sure it is performed thoroughly, and augment this as needed using an Environmental Protection Agency-approved, spore-killing disinfectant in rooms where C. difficile patients are treated.
• Notify other healthcare facilities about infectious diseases when patients transfer, especially between hospitals and nursing homes.
• Participate in a regional C. difficile prevention effort.

Vital Signs

Tools for Improving Antibiotic Use

CDC’s Get Smart for Healthcare campaign is focused on improving prescribing practices in inpatient healthcare facilities.

• CDC Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs
• Checklist for Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs
• Additional Antimicrobial Stewardship Resources

Tools for Long-Term Care Facilities

• Advancing Excellence C. difficile Infection Prevention Assessment Checklists
• NHSN: Tracking Infections in Long-term Care Facilities