C. difficile is a spore-forming bacterium that is present in the environment and can colonize in up to three to five per cent of adults in the community without causing symptoms. It has been associated with infectious diarrhea in health care settings for about 30 years.

Mandatory and standardized reporting of C. difficile has been introduced for all Ontario hospitals to monitor rates, establish trends and inform best practices to help the health care system reduce the risk and prevent the spread of the disease.

This site provides health care professionals with hospital indicator reports as well as practical resources to put effective infection control measures in place.

• Access to Infection Control Resource Teams [PDF]
• Best Practices for Cleaning, Disinfection and Sterilization
• Best Practices for Hand Hygiene
• Best Practices for Infection Prevention and Control Programs
• Best Practices for the Management of Clostridium difficile
• Best Practices for Surveillance of Health Care-Associated Infections in Patient and Resident Populations
• Clostridium difficile Toxin Testing - Specimen Acceptance Criteria [PDF]
• Control of Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI) Outbreaks in Hospitals [PDF]
• Fact Sheet - Clostridium difficile in Health Care Settings [PDF]
• Fact Sheet for Patients - C. Difficile [PDF]
• Data Elements for Public Reporting on WERS [PDF]
• Sample Line Listing [MS Word]
• Hand Hygiene for Health Care Professionals
• Regional Infection Control Networks (RICN)
• Regional Infection Control Networks (RICN) Training Package