Download our case study: Southern Ohio Medical Center Lowers Hospital-Acquired C. Difficile Rates by 30% With MEDITECH 

About: Southern Ohio Medical Center (Portsmouth, Ohio) is a 211-bed hospital that serves a large, sparsely populated area in Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky. The hospital and its 45 outpatient clinics support a community in which chronic conditions are prevalent and the poverty rate is high.

Challenge: SOMC’s infection prevention and quality improvement team established a multidisciplinary process to differentiate between an active C. diff infection, or CDI, and colonization. This screening process helped the hospital to achieve a standardized infection ratio of 0.394, well below the 2020 industry average of 0.52. However, its labor-intensive tasks introduced challenges. To automate the process in Expanse, SOMC engaged MEDITECH to develop tools that would help to expedite appropriate C. diff testing. 

Execution: After SOMC went LIVE with its Expanse EHR in 2020, the infection prevention team realized that using discrete information captured in the system could help to automate processes and lead to timelier decisions.

Results: System automation led to many positive outcomes, including:

• A 30% relative change in hospital-acquired CDIs.
• A 32% decrease in the number of canceled tests.
• 3.5 hours of the infectious diseases pharmacist’s time saved per week.

Quote: “We are always looking for better ways to provide care. Our performance improvement model is called A Better Way and our team, in partnership with MEDITECH Professional Services, did just that. We found a better way to detect C. difficile infections and provide patient treatment earlier on.”

Valerie DeCamp, DNP
Vice President of Clinical Integration and Chief Quality Officer
Southern Ohio Medical Center