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The Economics of Prefilled Syringes - August 2017 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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Infection Prevention IP 1 1 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 LESS IS MORE Antibiotic Stewardship Is a Weapon Against C. diff Here's what you can do to protect your patients and staff from Clostridium difficile, according to Belinda Ostrowsky, MD, MPH, director of epidemiology, stewardship and infection prevention for the Montefiore Health System in New York. Here are 4 of her recommendations: • Know the symptoms. Unrecognized C. diff patients can quickly spread the dis- ease to other patients in any healthcare facility. When you're determining whether patients feel well enough for surgery, ask about diarrhea, the primary symptom of C. diff, as well as other potential symptoms: abdominal cramping and pain, fever, nausea, weight loss, and, especially in older patients, a failure to thrive. The goal should be to recognize it quickly, so you don't put other patients at risk. • Not every surgery requires antibiotics. Some clean proce- dures don't require prophylactic antibiotics. There are guidelines in infectious disease and surgical literature that go over the types that do, as well as the types of agents to use, the timing and the needed duration. • Choose appropriate antibiotics. In the battle against C. diff, which is a tangible result of overuse of antibiotics, less is more: • JUDICIOUS Some surgical procedures don't require antibiotics before surgery, says Belinda Ostrowsky, MD, MPH.

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