Orangeville, ON – Headwaters Health Care Centre will now publish the hospital’s Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) rates and numbers monthly on the hospital website at www.headwatershealth.ca. “We are pleased to share with the public the work the hospital is doing to improve the care and safety of our patients, visitors and staff,” says Cholly Boland, President and Chief Executive Officer of Headwaters Health Care Centre.

“The dedicated health professionals who work in this hospital are committed to providing the best possible care to our patients,” says Boland. Headwaters' supports the provincial government’s new public reporting regime to enhance patient safety and strengthen the public’s confidence in Ontario’s hospitals.

“Public reporting of our hospital’s C. difficile rates will allow us to establish a baseline from which we can then track our rates over time. If we feel our rates have risen above our baseline, we can look internally at our hospital’s processes, identify areas for improvement, and implement strategies to reduce the incidence of C. difficile in our organization,” says Boland. Headwaters reported 0 cases of C. difficile at both the Orangeville and Shelburne sites for the month of August. The hospital will publicly report C. difficile rates online on a monthly basis as part of the provincial reporting requirements.

Over the next six months Ontario hospitals will be required to report publicly on a variety of other patient safety indicators, including Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE). When these microorganisms spread in a hospital it is called a hospital acquired infection. Seniors and people with a compromised immune system due to illness are more susceptible to get these infections. “Headwaters staff are doing our best to lower the risk of infection among all patients, visitors and staff by washing hands, keeping all areas clean, sterilizing equipment, using single-use supplies and educating staff, physicians and patients. We all must work together to control the problem, one of the easiest things that patients and visitors can do is to wash their hands” says Boland.

Earlier this year Headwaters launched the provincial ‘Just Clean Your Hands’ campaign at our Orangeville and Shelburne sites. The campaign aimed at visitors, patients and staff encourages everyone to be vigilant about performing proper hand hygiene. “Every contact with a patient or the patient’s environment requires clean hands…when you enter the patient room and when you leave,” says Anne Augustin, Infection Prevention and Control Coordinator at Headwaters Health Care Centre.