The second C. difficile outbreak at a Nova Scotia Hospital in less than a year is being blamed on lessons not learned from the first infectious encounter.
The latest outbreak at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital in Sydney was contained more quickly and affected far fewer patients, but administrators admit that is not good enough.
"Not all the lessons learned from the first outbreak have been implemented," says District Health Authority CEO John Malcom. "We really have to work on a culture of safety that focuses on infection control."
The first cluster of cases came four days before Christmas when six patients became ill. It lasted for six weeks and the deaths of two patients were linked to the infection.
Experts say the main culprit of the outbreaks is human error.
External audits of staff hand-washing practices observed that on average, more than 40 per cent of front-line hospital workers are still not washing their hands enough. In one check of an unidentified health care group, there was no compliance.
It was not only infection control officials who observed problems with staff hand-washing practices.
Brian Young, the son of a patient with C. difficile, said he saw it routinely during his mother's lengthy hospital stay.
"It was something we saw everyday in this facility," says Young. "I would say to myself, ‘how can they not transmit C. difficile?'"
Young visited his mother daily during her nine-month hospital stay and C. difficile has been listed as a contributing cause to her death in January.
"Even doctors wouldn't wash their hands," says Young. "We saw one doctor in the hall everyday. He would go from room to room for patients he had to see, and he would not wash his hands, and I am thinking, ‘wow, if that's the case, no wonder we are having the problems we are having with C. difficile.'"
The hospital has issued some written warnings about the importance of hand-washing practices. In addition, it vows tougher reprimands if doctors and health care workers don't comply.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Randy MacDonald
