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Hospital Clostridium difficile Infection Rates and Prediction of Length of Stay in Patients Without C. difficile Infection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Aaron C. Miller ,
Linnea A. Polgreen ,
Joseph E. Cavanaugh  and
Philip M. Polgreen
Aaron C. Miller
Affiliation:
Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa
Linnea A. Polgreen
Affiliation:
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
Joseph E. Cavanaugh
Affiliation:
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
Philip M. Polgreen*
Affiliation:
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
*
Address correspondence to Philip M. Polgreen, MD, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 200 Hawkins Dr, Iowa City, IA, 52242 (philip-polgreen@uiowa.edu).
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Abstract

BACKGROUND

Inpatient length of stay (LOS) has been used as a measure of hospital quality and efficiency. Patients with Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) have longer LOS.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the relationship between hospital CDI incidence and the LOS of patients without CDI.

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort analysis.

METHODS

We predicted average LOS for patients without CDI at both the hospital and patient level using hospital CDI incidence. We also controlled for hospital characteristics (eg, bed size) and patient characteristics (eg, comorbidities, age).

SETTING

Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample, 2009–2011.

PATIENTS

The Nationwide Inpatient Sample includes patients from a 20% sample of all nonfederal US hospitals.

RESULTS

Inpatient LOS was significantly longer (P<.001) at hospitals with greater CDI incidence at both the hospital and individual level. At a hospital level, a percentage point increase in the CDI incidence rate was associated with more than an additional day’s stay (between 1.19 and 1.61 days). At the individual level, controlling for all observable variables, a percentage point increase in the CDI incidence rate at their hospital was also associated with longer LOS (between 0.6 and 1.05 additional days). Hospital CDI incidence had a larger impact on LOS than many other commonly used predictors of LOS.

CONCLUSION

CDI rates are a predictor of LOS in patients without CDI at an individual and institutional level. CDI rates are easy to measure and report and thus may provide an important marker for hospital efficiency and/or quality.

Infect. Control Hosp. Epidemiol. 2016;37(4):404–410

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 37 , Supplement 4 , April 2016 , pp. 404 - 410
Copyright
© 2016 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. All rights reserved 

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