C-difficile outbreak

Sorry really don't mean to scare anyone scheduled for sugery coming up bu****ching the news tonight and they have declared an outbreak  of C-difficile at Guelph General now and seems many of the Niagra Region hospitals are dealing with outbreaks too.  At this point I don't have a surgery date but have been given a general timeling of Sept.
Do they ever cancel surgery if the outbreak is bad?

http://m.ctv.ca/topstories/20110706/c-difficile-outbreak-southern-ontario-110706.html

I have not heard about hospitals cancelling things - THAT would have made the news.  Mind you things get `reschduled`all the time for any surgery.

Hospitals are a major breeding ground for germs....and they even have a term for when someone goes into hopsital and catches something that is not related to why they were there in the first place - nosicomial infections.

``Nosocomial (adj.) are infections contracted as a result of being hospitalized; hospital-acquired, unrelated to primary condition.``

Judy

the morning I drove into surgery the Hamilton Spectator front page banner read "C Difficile outbreak at St Joseph's Hospital"....

Its usualy in the long term care wing....surgery obviously went as scheduled..

As JJ just said - lots of germs in the hospital -

The best thing you can do is make sure if any staff are going to touch you you make sure they wash their hands first. I am a nurse and I can say that hand washing is a big thing. C Diff is passed around from poor cleaning or not washing hands between patients. If you are in good health now your risk of contracting c diff is lower than someone who has been on anitbiotics and has a poor immune system. Antibiotics kill the good bacteria in your gut as well as the bad which opens you up to c diff. Just wash wash wa****he Niagra hospitals are probably the cleanest ones now since they are in the news etc...

 usually (not always) the outbreak is contained to an area,... and usually (not always) does not really interfere with the rest of the programs running. if by some chance its in the surgical wing then it can cause issues.

Guelph has the holding zone (thats what I call it) its the section where they house people waiting a Long term bed. from my experience @ Guelph.. this is where a good portion of the outbreaks occur .. remember though I deal with GGH on a limited basis I am mainly in nursing homes. 

I heard about the outbreak as I was leving my hotel room for Guelph for Surgery on Thursday morning.
I was in a panic...2 wks optifast and ???

It never affected any of my surgery procedure at all.

Whew!

C-Diff is present in most hosptials much of the time. It is classified as an outbreak when they hit a certain number of patients - in the Niagara hospitals I think that's 10 cases. My aunt has been in one of those hospitals for three months now. They were just under that threshold when she arrived and nobody was panicked about it, but they took special precautions. The day they got to 10 they were labeled with outbreak and the media went crazy about it. The situation in the hospital itself didn't change and the hospital staff were not more concerned about it at all. The outbreak didn't mean that the cases were escalating out of control, just one more than the "allowable" limit.

What it might mean in practical terms: If there is any reason to believe that you might have come in contact with C-Diff or have symptoms such as diarrhea, even if they don't suspect that the symptoms are caused by C-Diff, you may be put into an isolation room where visitors will have to put on caps and gloves and gowns every time they come in or leave the room. You might also not be able to leave your room during your stay, so your walking effort will be much more boring as you pace your room.

I had my first surgery at Scarborugh Grace Hospital in 2002 during the West Nile outbreak. Everyone who came to visit me wore a yellow mask and gown, otherwise it didn't affect my surgery - I was worried too.