Teaching hospitals have high C. diff infection rates, Consumer Reports says

Clostridium difficile (Source: CDC)

Clostridium difficile, a deadly bacterial infection that sickens a half-million people every year and kills some 29,000, has become more common and more deadly, according to Consumer Affairs. And teaching hospitals in particular seem to be suffering from high infection rates.

While the tools needed to fight the bug are inexpensive -- soap, gloves, disinfectants and antibiotics are the most common -- C. diff in certain hospitals is on the rise, even while other hospital-acquired infections are on the decline.

About one-third of the 31,000-plus hospitals evaluated by Consumer Affairs received a low score for C. diff infection control, which meant their infection rates were lower than the national benchmark. Nineteen of the country's largest teaching hospitals were on the list.

[Also: See which hospitals failed and were fined for hospital-acquired conditions (map, list)]

They include Aurora St. Luke's Medical center in Milwaukee; Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas; Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; the Cleveland Clinic; Greenville Memorial Hospital in South Carolina; Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; Indiana University Health University Hospital in Indianapolis; Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia; Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston; Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City; Orlando Regional Medical Center; University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky; University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers in Ann Arbor, Michigan; University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida; UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside in Pittsburgh; Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut.

Their low rankings are based on data hospitals reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between October 2014 and September 2015.

Just two teaching hospitals with at least 500 beds earned top C. diff prevention scores, meaning their infection rates were 50 percent better than the national benchmark. They were Maimonedes Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York and Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida.

[Also: CMS awards $347 million to help reduce readmissions, hospital-acquired conditions]

Some hospitals have argued that negligence is not the predominant factor in these high infection rates. Several, according to Consumer Reports, have argued that teaching hospitals tend to see sicker patients than non-teaching hospitals, and that many of these patients are already infected when they walk through the door.

Still, many of the facilities are taking steps to lower those rates. Baylor, for example, has said that it's developing new protocols to ensure that antibiotics are being prescribed correctly; and it now isolates any patient showing symptoms of the bug, even if they haven't yet tested positive.

According to the CDC, 94 percent of C. diff infections take place in hospitals or other healthcare settings, primarily because it attacks the intestinal tracts of people with compromised immune systems.

[Also: CMS proposes rule to reduce antibiotic overuse, improve infection control]

Something as simple as keeping things clean can help with these infection rates, said Consumer Reports. Rooms should be cleaned with EPA-approved germ-killing agents, and healthcare workers' hands should be gloved as much as possible, and washed thoroughly once the gloves are removed. While those steps seem basic, a 2014 University of Iowa study found that less than one-third of workers in intensive care units always washed their hands.

The proper use of antibiotics can also keep infection rates down. In addition to killing off deadly bacteria, "broad spectrum: antibiotics like ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin can also kill off the "good" bacteria in one's stomach, leaving conditions in which C. diff can thrive.

The CDC has reported that, so far, only 39 percent of all hospitals have antibiotic stewardship programs in place.

Twitter: @JELagasse