The end of C-diff testing??

[medpsychRN]

Cared for a woman on nights over the weekend. She had an episode of massive diarrhea (bed, floor,toilet). This was the third night she had diarrhea. Saw her attending Monday morning and I mentioned it to him suggesting we get a stool for C-diff. He told me the hospital wasn't testing anyone for c-diff who'd been hospitalized longer than 48 hours. They don't want it to look hospital acquired.

I'm thinking of a million reasons why this policy is a problem. Does this increase the potential for c-diff spreading to other patients and staff? Since it's a system wide policy, it's a system wide problem now and in the future. Am I wrong about c-diff being so contagious? Any info would be appreciated.

[mscsrjhm]

Re: the OP. Perhaps the humorless Dr. was attempting to joke?

No Physician is going to voluntarily breach basic standard of care.

Can you imagine how much a memo directing this negligence would be worth to a med-mal attorney?

Just doesn't sound realistic, but, who knows?

[diane227, LPN, RN]

C diff is a highly contagious bacteria. It is one of the worst hospital acquired infections. You must wash your hands with soap and water and those hand sanitizers do not work. We require all pts with possible C diff to be isolated until we have three cultures that come back negative. Any patient who comes in with diarrhea for unknown cause gets isolated until we know, especially those patients who come from nursing homes.