The Cost-efficiency and Care Effectiveness of Probiotic Administration with Antibiotics to Prevent Hospital-Acquired Clostridium difficile Infection.

Health care facility-acquired Clostridium difficile infections (HCFA-CDI) have increased over the last several decades despite facilities developing protocols for prescribing probiotics with antibiotics to prevent HCFA-CDI. The literature does not consistently support this. A retrospective medical record review evaluated the care effectiveness of this practice. Care effectiveness was not found; patients receiving probiotics with antibiotics were twice as likely to develop HCFA-CDI (P = .004). Except with glycopeptides, patients were 1.88 times less likely to experience HCFA-CDI (P = .05).