1983. Adherence vs. Non-adherence: Clinical Outcomes of an Antimicrobial Stewardship Directed Treatment Protocol for Clostridioides difficile Infection

BACKGROUND: The 2018 Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) C. difficile infection (CDI) treatment guideline no longer recommends metronidazole as first-line therapy in adults, instead recommending vancomycin or fidaxomicin. At our 1500-bed academic medical center, a new CDI treatment protocol was initiated by the antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) to guide treatment based on disease severity and risk factors for recurrence. In this study, we compared the clinical cure rate and 30-day recurrence rate in patients who are adherent and non-adherent to our institutional CDI treatment protocol. METHODS: Patients with CDI between September-December 2018 were identified using electronic health record (EHR) reports. A retrospective chart review was conducted to collect the following information: baseline demographics, white blood cell count, CDI severity, and risk factors, etc. Outcome measures included clinical cure rate, 30-day recurrence rate, and global cure rate, stratified by whether treatment was adherent or non-adherent to institutional protocol. Student’s t-test was used for continuous variables. Fisher exact test or Chi-square test was used for categorical variables. RESULTS: A total of 188 patients (adherent group n = 100; non-adherent group n = 88) were included. Patient demographics and baseline risk factors did not differ between groups. Clinical cure rate was higher in adherent group (P < 0.05), while no significant differences were observed in recurrence and global cure rates between the two groups (Figure 1). The overall protocol adherence rate was 53%. The most common reasons for non-adherence are inappropriate vancomycin dose for fulminant CDI (69%) and insufficient duration of treatment (27%). CONCLUSION: An ASP directed new CDI treatment protocol was successfully implemented at our institution. Patients treated according to our institutional protocol resulted in a higher overall cure rate than those non-adherent. Global cure and 30-day recurrence rates were similar. An overall protocol adherence rate of 53% is consistent with previously published literature. Future direction to develop an EHR order set with targeted recommendations is anticipated to further improve adherence and clinical outcomes. [Image: see text] DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.