Are Hospital Mattresses Putting Patients at Increased Risk for C. difficile?

Edmond Hooker, MD, DrPH, professor, Health Services Administration at Xavier University, and emergency physician at the University of Cincinnati, discusses multiple factors that put patients at increased risk of getting C. difficile.

Interview Transcript (modified slightly for readability):

"You’re at risk for getting C. difficile infections, if you’re getting antibiotics, if you’re on proton pump inhibitors, if people aren’t washing their hands; those kinds of things have been well recognized. But the big risk to inpatients is the mattress. Patients are exposed to the mattress; they’re lying on it for hours on end, and these mattresses cannot be cleaned and are not being cleaned as we are currently doing it today, and we need to change.”