The clinical study [17] included patients >15 years with 2 or more unformed stools (Bristol stool chart 5–7) within a 24-h period who had been admitted to hospital no shorter than 3 days before sample collection to exclude community origin of disease. PCR and

INK 128 price CCNA results were reported to the respective wards through the Laboratory Information System as soon as they became available. Once positives were identified, patients were managed according to standard clinical protocols for treatment of CDI [17]. All positive PCR and/or CCNA results were additionally phoned to the wards or infection control nurses. Patients were immediately isolated in a side room, if available, prior to microbiological diagnosis, as per ABMUHB policy. The first 150 PCR-positive and 150 PCR-negative patients of the clinical study were planned to be included in the cost comparison study. Separate from the ongoing clinical study, as a control, patients with positive and negative PCR samples were age and gender matched to patients with positive or negative CCNA results from the same calendar month in the previous year. This led to the formation of four patient groups comprising PCR-positive, PCR-negative, CCNA-positive, and CCNA-negative patients. Due to the fact that the clinical study focused on diagnostic

accuracy of various tests for C. difficile detection in stool samples, GDH/toxin EIA results were not reported to wards and not used for patient OSI-906 mouse management. Selleckchem eFT508 It therefore had to be excluded Selleckchem Depsipeptide from the cost comparison study as it would not have impacted on patient LOS. Length of Hospital Stay As main outcome, overall LOS from admission to discharge, LOS from date of stool sample (LOSSample) to discharge of positive and negative intervention (i.e., PCR) and historic control (i.e., CCNA) samples were compared. LOS data were gathered using the Myrddin Patient Administration System and the in-house Laboratory Information System

used routinely at the two hospital sites and recorded anonymously. Data were log-transformed using SPSS 16.0 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA) to address skewness of data and differences in duration of inpatient stay between the groups were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Average hospital inpatient day costs were obtained from National Health Service (NHS) reference costs (2011) [18] and weighted for specialty and activity. Cost of Laboratory Testing We collected costs in Pound (£) Sterling in 2011 adopting an NHS perspective. Cost of the different tests was estimated using a micro-costing bottom-up approach including data collection on resource use and costs of materials, capital, waste, repeat samples, overheads, staff time, and staff training time.