Central Okanagan Division of Family Practice

Clinical Support

C. difficile

Our community is experiencing ongoing challenges with C. difficile.  C. difficile infection (CDI) is the most common cause of infectious diarrhea in hospitalized patients.  It is transmitted from hands of health care workers, contaminated hospital environments and asymptomatic carriers. Risk factors for CDI include antibiotic use and reducing agents such as proton pump inhibitors.

A hypervirulent strain of C. difficile (NAP1) has been circulating worldwide that is associated with more severe disease and more frequent and recalcitrant recurrences.  Although clindamycin and third generation cephalosporins have historically been associated with CDI, quinolone antibiotics seem to particularly predispose patients to the hypervirulent strain. Interior Health is introducing a pre-printed order to help physicians manage CDI. Please review the documents available for download here to learn more about C. difficile.
 

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The BC Medical Journal January/February 2011 issue features two clinical scenarios of diagnosis and treatment of C. difficile that may be of interest to family physicians.
 

Accessing lab and imaging results

Did you know that you can look up lab and imaging results that were ordered by another physician and from other areas of the province?

eHealth contains results from provincial lab, other health authority labs, community labs (excelleris) as well as imaging.  It’s a little cumbersome as you have to go through meditech.  Hopefully we’ll eventually have access to Excelleris for community labs in a way that’s similar to Pharmanet, but that may take a while. See the attached pdfs for instructions.
 

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